I’m sure most of you have already heard, but Cingular just came out with the Motorola ROKR, the first phone to have iTunes. You can install software onto your computer that enables you to transfer 100 songs from your computer to your phone. Nokia is also coming out with the N91, which can hold 3,000 songs, according to Nokia’s Web site.

Cell phones are getting more and more impractical these days. Pretty soon cell-phone technology will start to take charge of us if we’re not careful.

When cell phones were first starting to get wide usage by the public back in the 1980s, they were simply used to conduct telephone conversations. They didn’t have any caller identification, fancy ring tones, cameras, blinking lights, crazy accessories or any of the other things we have now. It’s hard for most of us to think of a life with a cell phone that can only make and take calls.

I went to get a new phone over the summer and the best model for the brand I wanted was one with a camera, video camera, lights and various other functions. I didn’t need any of this, but the next step down was a model they didn’t even recommend. I had to settle for the camera phone.

A camera, I’ve found, is almost completely unnecessary on a cell phone. The only pictures I’ve seen people end up with on their phones are random pictures of people they know, drunk escapades and couples. While this may be fun sometimes, it doesn’t necessarily serve a truly useful function.

If you happen to take a picture of something you really like, then it costs 25 cents or something to send the picture to your computer. Then you have to pay the money to have it developed or printed. You may as well use a $5 disposable camera and get it developed for less than $10. That way you’d save yourself the hassle of paying for extra phone services, printing charges, sending the pictures, etc., and you’d end up with 27 to 30 quality pictures.

Being able to put iTunes on your phone is just another thing to add to the list of phone features that have no practical purpose. You are only able to put 100 songs on the Motorola model, and that’s if they’re not long songs. This phone is $250 with a contract. If you want something that plays iTunes, you may as well buy an iPod or other mp3 player for at least $50 less and you’ll get 10, if not 15, times the music storage.

I was unable to find the price of the new Nokia phone because it’s not available yet; however, my guess is that it will be much more expensive than its Motorola rival, giving you even more incentive to just buy an iPod/mp3 player instead and keep the phone you may already have.

If we keep going in the direction we are, my guess is in a matter of years we’ll become even more dependent on our cell phones – however unbelievable that may be.

I have no doubt that technology will find its way to put so many functions on cell phones that everyone will need one to survive.

Eventually we’ll probably have all our personal information, including Social Security numbers, insurance, credit card and bank account numbers, medical history, etc., available to us through our cell phone.

The cashier at the grocery store will tell us our total and we’ll likely be able to send our credit-card number to some receptor in the cash register. We’ll go to a doctor’s appointment and we’ll text message our medical history to their computer so they can print it out for the doctor to see. The possibilities are endless, and somewhat creepy.

Cell phones are starting to become equipped with more and more impractical functions. We need to step back and take a good look at all of this and ask ourselves if we really need them.

If we don’t do it soon, they’ll start to develop even more functions that may not be so practical. Then they’ll begin taking over our lives even more so than they have already.

Necessity is being pushed to the wayside.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.