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cellular epidemic
I've had a wireless phone since the day the cellular system launched in Canada. It was the summer of 1986. My first phone was a big Motorola unit that looked more like a battle tank than a communications device and weighed about as much. The phone itself cost $4,500 to buy and calls were $1 per minute (Cantel was the only provider in Canada). The reason for this indulgence was that a prospect refused to become a client unless I were accessible everywhere.
Back then, people were very conscious of phone etiquette. It was a status symbol, but only if used discreetly. It was unthinkable to use the phone in a restaurant. You wouldn't dream of taking it with you to a sporting event or social function. I turned it off most of the time. Even today I, like many others, choose very carefully where and when my phone gets switched on.
Unfortunately, too many people today seem oblivious to simple usage protocol. Unable to turn their phones off, they salivate like Pavlov's dogs every time their master rings.
As a ballroom dancer, dance lessons are often interrupted by the ringing of a cell phone. Teachers are good about asking students to please turn off the phone. Often it's just an accident that it was left on, but what really irritates me is when it is left on deliberately, as if the person can't live without taking every call that comes in.
More than once, I hear a cell phone go off in church. In the middle of a sermon. It's bad enough that these people feel their phone calls are more important than their relationship with God, but haven't they ever heard of vibrate mode? Worse, some of them answer the phone right there in the pew! I heard about one preacher who, when a cell phone rang interrupting his sermon, exclaimed "unless that's Jesus calling, you better turn it off!"
I've heard people answer phones in movie theaters, concerts, hospitals and libraries. Malls and stores don't bother me, but it isn't it annoying when people broadcast their side of the conversation so loudly that if the person on the other end didn't need a hearing aid before the call, they will after?
Now we even have violence associated with phones. Call it cell phone rage. Not long ago in Massachusetts, a man was charged after stabbing someone in the foot in a movie theater for suggesting he turn off his cell phone.
A recent survey from Cingular Wireless found that people in different regions of the US had different ideas of phone courtesy. In the South, cell phone users typically silence their phones in church. In the West they tend to be more socially aware, with a majority turning the phone off in libraries, theaters, restaurants and schools as well as church. Midwesterners are the most polite, hitting the off switch pretty well anywhere including retail stores.
What about you?
Since people seem incapable of managing their usage based on common rules of polite society, it makes sense that others have to help get the message out. I'm seeing more and more efforts in lobbies, cinemas, hospitals and restaurants asking people to please turn off their phones. Even at the risk of phone rage, I have no problem politely asking someone to take their call outside. As waiters and other customer service staff learn to gently prod people into recognizing their cell phone addiction, we may yet return to a time when you can worship in church with the only ringing in your ears being the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
