Cell Phone Courtesy
| July 29th, 2008 by Robert | Word Count: 957 | Reading Time 3:52 | 2,809 views |
Cell phones, we love them, we hate them. They are everywhere. Family plans, text plans, and data plans. Can we go anywhere anymore without the incessant sounds of annoying ring tones, message indicators, and fantastic flashing light displays? The cell phone, or more justly called at this point, the personal data assistant (PDA), has come to be more important than remembering to bring along your wallet wherever you go. How important is your cell phone to you? Why is it so important? Will your life cease moving forward without your digital connection to your life?
Not so long ago, the only people using these digital lifelines were business people and people with a little extra money to spend. However, times have drastically changed. Everyone now has access to these mini-tracking devices. In a report from 2007, cell phone penetration was above 80%. I would venture a guess that today we are over 90%. EVERYONE has a cell phone. Why not you may say? They are inexpensive and they have so many “justifiable” uses. I agree. The cell phone has altered our way of life. But, what price have we paid? As the article title implies, I’m going to talk about courtesy. Cell phones have played a major part in destroying our basic ability to show courtesy in many situations. We have become more worried about our life beyond the cell phone than we are about what is happening directly in front of us.
That’s a fairly broad statement isn’t it? Cell phones are responsible for the decay of courtesy in our lives? Let me ask you a few questions. While driving, how many people do you see on the phone whether it’s in town, in a parking lot, or on the interstate? When you are in a store, how many people do you see walking around on cell phones? When you are checking out, how many are on the phone? When you are having a conversation, how many people answer their phones while you are talking to them? When you are in a waiting room, how many people are having a private conversation, in public, on their phone? How many places do you see or hear reminders about “turning your phone off” for the benefit of everyone else? How many people are so absorbed in their cell phone life, their immediate physical life is on the back burner?
The one common theme among every one of those questions is courtesy for others. If you are involved in a cell phone conversation, you are not paying attention to your current surroundings. Those current surroundings include many other people. I will admit, I do all of the above, we all do. It’s a part of our new life with cell phones. Is it a good thing? Clearly, I think not. Our common courtesy has been undermined by the ability to bring our digital lifeline wherever we go. That lifeline has overtaken our ability to be courteous to others in a variety of ways. We fail to pay attention to those we are in contact with. We force strangers to listen to conversations in which they are not willing participants. We give people the very basic attention necessary to accomplish our immediate tasks. We annoy most everyone around us with our actions while on the phone. Everyone loses, including the cell phone user.
I ran across a small tidbit this morning that sparked this particular conversation. There was a photo online showing a small printed notice inside a Subway restaurant informing the patrons that if they were on the phone while ordering, they would be placed at the end of the line. Sounds like a fair and good idea to me. The cell phone user is not paying attention to the workers who are trying to complete his order in a timely fashion. Cell phone users in line disrupt the ordering process and delay everyone behind them. Courtesy. These situations exist everywhere around us, but this particular store decided to do something about it. Isn’t it a sad testimony about our nature when a sign such as this needs to be created? How self involved have we become?
Cell phones are very important. They give us access to our world in the case of emergencies or important issues requiring our attention. But, they are not the focal point many of us have made them to be. If it rings, it doesn’t HAVE to be answered. If there is a text, it doesn’t HAVE to be replied to at that moment. If you have access to special ringtones, you don’t HAVE to make it an annoying sound. If you have a Bluetooth headset, you don’t HAVE to wear it EVERYWHERE you go (by the way, it makes you look stupid wearing it everywhere you go). See where I’m going here? Cell phones are available for our benefit, but they are not the ONLY thing that matters when it rings, beeps, flashes, or vibrates.
I challenge everyone to start focusing on how they use their cell phone. Think about how you are impacting those around you. Are you showing them the common courtesy they deserve or are you part of the problem? Put yourself on the other end. If you were in their shoes and someone was on the phone making your life harder, would you feel as if you were being treated with respect? Stop answering the phone while you are in the middle of a conversation. Stop talking on the phone when you are talking to someone else. Stop talking on the phone while you are driving. Stop treating the cell phone as if you would cease to exist if you weren’t on it. Bring back common courtesy. It can be done.
on July 29th, 2008 at 9:10 pm:
One of my pet peeves is when I am out to eat in a restaurant and someone gets a call on their cell phone,they talk so loud that you can hear everything they are saying and nothing the people you are with are talking about. Do they assume everyone on the other end is hard of hearing? Another pet peeve is cell phones in Church. I read about or heard a Preacher tell his people that unless they were expecting a phone call from God, their cell phones should be turned off while in Church.
Some people or should I say lots of people are even texting other people while driving. They say on the average, about 17,000 people lose their lives each year due to drug and alcohol related
automobile accidents. Now we have new problems to contend with. I wonder how cell phone statistics will compare once they are compared to drug and alcohol related accidents?? But again how will the police know for sure?
For the people that don’t believe cell phone use will affect their driving,they should just sit on a street corner for awhile and see how many drivers on their cell phones will cut them off or even run into them. Or safer yet,”maybe” go to your favorite super market and see how many times you get run into by someone pushing a cart and talking on a cell phone, and these same people drive automobiles while talking on their phones.
Is this as dangerous as driving under the influence? Some states think so, they are making cell phone usage while driving illegal. I look for this to happen in all states unless the public changes their habits, but I don’t see that happening on their own.
on July 30th, 2008 at 8:58 am:
Cell phone usage has a dramatic effect on people’s attention to their immediate surroundings. Not long ago, I saw a report equating cell phone usage to being drunk past the legal limits. Reaction time and decision making were both severely impaired.
I know what you mean about the super market. Even without cell phones, people can’t seem to be able to “drive” their carts. When they are impaired, it’s an impossibility. At times, I’ve had “aisle rage” welling up inside me when faced with these individuals (joking, it’s plain aggravation but I’m sure someone out there has experienced true “aisle rage”).
As for implementing a no cell phone use in cars law, I just don’t see how it could be enforced. Police pick and choose speeders now and they have easy devices to figure those out. How are they going to stop people from using a phone? It’s a nice idea, but there has to be a technological stop to enforce this law, not people power.
on August 1st, 2008 at 12:27 am:
What’s up with all the bluetooth ear phone things? I can’t stand those. I never know if the person is talking to me or not!
on August 1st, 2008 at 11:37 am:
Yeah, and they will look at you while they are talking and it gets to be uncomfortable. Our focus on “ease of use” makes some of the most simple tasks for others not so easy.
on August 22nd, 2008 at 11:02 am:
For a few years when cell phones became popular, I boycotted them. I kept telling everyone, “I’ve gotten a long this long without one, I think I will be okay.” And, I was. However, that being said, I do have one now and have had for approximately four years or so. But, people are annoying with them. Whenever I find someone doing something in traffic, it’s almost always someone on a cell phone. I quickly get annoyed with people on cell phones, but think, maybe this one time it’s actually important. I rarely answer my phone unless it’s something that could potentially be important, and even then I’m sure they will leave a message.
Cell phones are ruining this country! That and the Mexicans. oops
on August 22nd, 2008 at 1:19 pm:
I particularly like how you give the benefit of the doubt to others regarding potentially important phone calls. That is something we can all do to ease the annoyance factor, at least in situations where we cannot hear the “conversation.” Cell phones have definitely negatively affected our society. For all of the positive effects it brought with it, the negatives have seemingly surpassed them now that they have become ubiquitous.
Immigration, I’ll leave to that a future article…
on August 22nd, 2008 at 1:24 pm:
The mexican thing was just a goof really. But, yeah, as little as 5 years ago, not everyone had cell phones, so what did we do? We waited til they got home to talk to them. Perhaps, with all these cell phones, one on one conversations are dropping. Between husbands and wives there m ay not be anything to talk about when u get home because you’ve said it all over the phone. Cell phones come in handy if you have vehicle trouble, or if you are extremely bored. lol Nine times out of 10, if you call someone on a cell, it could wait til later. If it isn’t something of dire need, or something I just want done, I often send texts because it’s quicker. But i’d say cell phones have more negatives than positives. But, we are almost all part of the problem. Such is life.
on August 22nd, 2008 at 3:43 pm:
I admit at times, I play a part of the problem. But, if I am creating a problem, I make sure I’m making as minimal of a problem as I can rather than giving the public a treat involving the mundane events of my life. I’m pretty sure my “wal-mart pals” don’t really need to know what I’m going to pick up at taco-bell on the way home. So, I keep it down and only call when I have more than 2 seconds worth of conversation to talk about.
I agree that constant communication creates a potential lack of contact when coming home. Without anything to converse about during the day, some couples may not have anything to chat about over time. My wife and I communicate constantly via email when we are able to, but it doesn’t affect our communication at home in person. We have the ability to communicate great which is one reason our relationship is so strong.