The proliferation of cell phones has caused an interesting conundrum to many of us. I'll cite some examples. For the most part, I'll leave the whole driving & talking thing alone.
How rude is it to be in line at a store or restaurant with an employee taking your order, your money, etc. & you are talking on the cell phone? I mean, hang up the freaking phone & deal with the person who are trying to get some food from rather than continuing to yap to someone in some part of the city, state, country, world.
I was in Starbucks one morning this week & the lady in front of me was completely ignoring not only the cashier & barista but also her young son, probably 4 years old, while she yapped incessantly on her cell phone. The child was thoroughly bored, but behaving himself while the cashier repeatedly had to get the woman's attention, using both verbal & physical gestures, to give her the change, her muffin & finally the coffee. The boy got nothing.
Oh & then there are the elderly people who have a cell phone because their kids gave it to them. They have no idea how to use it, so it sits in their pocket or purse waiting to ring loudly. This usually happens in church. A couple of months ago, right at the beginning of mass, a lady's phone rang & she either couldn't hear it because she's deaf or she chose to ignore it. It rang the usual 5 to 6 times & then went silent. Following the responsorial psalm, it started up again & again, she did nothing. Finally, during the homily, she didn't attempt to silence it, but got up & left mass to take the freaking call. I guess whoever was on the other end is more important than God.
The use of cell phones in the restroom is very disturbing, but I'm not sure I want to get into that here.
With the advent & wide-spread use of blackberry's & other smartphones, a whole new set of challenges, etiquettes & faux pas have emerged. I am relatively new to this technology. I traded in my clam-shell-type phone for a Motorola Q smartphone in August 2007. I love the phone, but I find myself incessantly checking my e-mail on it. I have 3 accounts linked to it - my business account, my personal account & the web master account for my CSI chapter. My wife & I also text each other a few times a week. A friend of mine several weeks ago threatened to take my phone away just to see what would happen. It was at that point that I realized I was addicted to checking my e-mail on it.
Believe me, I don't get a lot of e-mail traffic. During football season, my fantasy leagues give me 1 or 2 updates a day on the personal account. CBS Sportsline is "enough said" for anyone who uses them for their fantasy leagues. The web master account gets next to no traffic. I usually have 1 or 2 e-mails each morning when I wake up on my business account. I occassionally get a couple across the evening as well. I use it for more than just business. All told, on an average day, my business account gets maybe 30 hits & that's mostly during business hours. I guess I'm still enamored with the connectivity of it, so I keep checking it.
I've noticed in public & at seminars & in meetings, a lot of people will ignore whatever is happening, whatever conversation they are in & bust out the blackberry to check e-mail. The more I watch this, the ruder it seems to me & the more disturbing it has become. I have made a conscious effort to not do this, to stay connected verbally & physically to the outside world.
I do have one men's room story - the other day the gentlemen in the stall next to me was punching away on this blackberry with such speed that it was almost the 40-50 words a minute I can type with 10 fingers, not just 2 thumbs. There were no pauses - the keys were clicking for close to 5 minutes straight, so he wasn't just checking mail & responding with 3-5 word answers. He was clearly penning (or thumbing) a novel over there.
Anyway, if you read this, please think about what you do, when, where & how with your cell phone or blackberry. Take a week & look around at how other's use their devices & the rudeness that can come from breaking simple common courtesies.
