Editor's note: Ye Xiaowen, 26, works in the human resource department of NEC Corp in Tianjin. She is a self-described cell phone addict.

I got my first cell phone in middle school, when I was at a boarding school in Tianjin. It was the first time I had lived apart from my family and my father bought me the bricklike device so I could chat with him for a little bit every day. Later that year, I got a better phone and passed my first one on to my mother.

That was some 12 years ago.

Now, I have almost 20 used cell phones in the bottom of a drawer or scattered around my apartment. Getting rid of any of them is a chore.

For me, cell phones are far more than communication devices that can be used to make calls and send text messages. They also have MP3 players, e-books, cameras and other things you can use to kill time while waiting for a bus. I sometimes sit on a couch and play with my cell phone for hours, and it has already become an indispensable part of my life.

I usually decide it's time to get rid of an old phone when a new one with features that I can't resist has been released.

Some of the phones I've discarded have gone to my mom or other relatives. Most of the others get left lying about wherever I have space for them.

I'll keep holding onto them. They may be old but they still work - and they've been with me for so long.

I won't sell them on the secondhand market either. I keep a lot of personal information, contact information, pictures and files on the phones and don't want that to be released.

Even now, I'm thinking about getting a new one. The device I have in mind is such a stunner that I feel almost compelled to make it mine. I say this even as some of my old favorites sit piled up high on the shelves, collecting dust.

Ye Xiaowen was talking to China Daily reporter Zheng Xin.