I am considered an analog guy.

Most of the young people in the newsroom are amused by the wall calendar I have posted to keep track of vacations in the sports department. “How retro.” But the newspaper has no easy electronic system to track vacations, and certainly not one that allows anyone to see whoever has reserved this or that week off.

So, analog guy. Sometimes not all bad, but try telling that to someone under 30. “Analog” is what happens, to old people. But sometimes we have reasons better than “I’m too old to change.”

Sometimes the old way is better.

Take, for instance, the telephone land line.

The cell phone, or the mobile phone, as it is known in most of the English-speaking world, is a handy device for communicating when you a person is on the move. It also stores phone numbers.

“Smart” phones up the ante: They allow you to be online, receiving news and photos and offering applications of just about any description. Not that anyone wants or uses all of them. It’s too much.

In much of the world, the land line, that 20th century technology which facilitates conversations between two parties, is dead.

And I ask, “Why?”

Cell phones continue to have crappy reception, nine times out of 10. Static in the line, delayed reception, and no signal at all when you get to certain dead spots in the world — and more than a few dead spots are still out there. And then if your cell is lost or stolen, you often have to get a new number, rebuild your phone list, etc.

A land line? Usually a clear signal. Voices that can be understood. Nice connections. And a handset that actually has the mouthpiece near your mouth and the earpiece near your ear. And it is very, very rare for someone to lose a land line.

This weekend, we are getting a land line for the new apartment. The service is offered free with our basic telecom package. I will not pass up that offer.

And as someone who is sick to death of bad cell connections, I will be happy to see a modern version of the old phone, sitting on the kitchen counter, ready to give me clear calls across Abu Dhabi or across the UAE.

Analog guy? When it comes to phone preferences … guilty as charged.