Well the phone is pretty much dying as a technology. You CAN survive without a phone. Heck, you can use RELAY!!! It would be different if there was no other alternative, but there are tons of alternatives to the telephone.
To the OP, acceptance of CI is coming around. Is it universally accepted? No, but then again when hearing aids were first introduced a lot of Deaf people were against them too!
I bet in ten or twenty years most people won't even think twice about the presense of CI.
There are a lot of implantees who identify strongly as Deaf.
