I'm going to shove that cell phone up your ass.

[QuickSilver]

Look. It's just a fucking phone. I don't know if it appeals to your inner child who's never gotten over the novelty of a walkie talkie. I don't know if the mere magic of a wireless communication device is clouding your easily befuddled mind. I don't even care that you can take a photo of your ass with the damn thing and send it to your buddies as a joke is a source of endless amusement to you.

It's a FUCKING PHONE. A device which, at it's best, is still an Alexander fucking Graham bloody Bell TELEPHONE!!!

Get over the fucking novelty of it all. When I'm speaking to you, don't keep reaching for your hip and pulling it out to check who's messaging you every 30 seconds. It's distracting and we all know that nothing you do is THAT important. If it were that fucking important, you'd have a secretary to take your messages. And you still would not be that important.

Unless lives depend on you and your ability to respond to a call, I need you to focus on what I'm saying. Yes, "Ring-Dingy" recorded by your child's voice is very precious as a caller ID ring. But not during a business meeting, which is already longer than it needs to be. Focus you A.D.D. retard, so we can all get out of here and get on with our day.

You! Ya, the one with the blackberry type thing that never leaves your hands. Nobody is impressed that you're that wired. You look more like a dog with a wireless fence collar than a savvy connected player. Knock that shit off. I know it's just your S.O. asking if you'd remembered to pick up the dry cleaning. Is there a moment in your day that you can entertain an uninterrupted thought longer than 60 seconds?

Mainlining digital noise monkeys!!! (Oooo! Band name!!!)

[Licentious Ectomorph]

QuickSilver, you are my new best friend! (Even if you don't like my pants. ;) )

I avoided getting a cell phone for a long time, precisely because I didn't want to be one of those twits, or to look like one of those twits, or to be perceived as trying to look like those twits. Since getting a cell phone, I've found it to be a rather useful thing to have - but it's a tool, a convenience, nothing more. Cell phones stopped being status symbols when people on food stamps started getting them.

[Amp]

I give the rant an 8. I would have rated it higher but the use of this unPC phrase, "Focus you A.D.D. retard" knocked some points off.

[Ethilrist]

Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how much they're paying for that kind of... hang on, I've got to take this...

[Mangetout]

And what's with people talking to each other as they walk together down the street. Fuckers. Can't they tell it annoys me?

[Hampshire]

Yes, I have a cellphone.
No, I don't have 100 different ring tones and none of them are musical or funny. My phone just goes beep-beep-beep.
No, I don't have any cool screensavers on my phone. In fact, it's not even in color.
It just shows the time.
No, I can't take pictures with mine. No I can't go on the web. No it's not 'wafer' thin. No I can't play tetris supreme on mine. No flashing antenna.

You know why? Because it's a friggin phone.

I know your's is the most expensive thing you own and you like to 'bling' it up and have the latest greatest one with the built in satellite dish and hi-def surround sound system. But please, keep your toys at home.

[Jackmannii]

And what's with people talking to each other as they walk together down the street. Fuckers. Can't they tell it annoys me?No one around here does this anymore. They're on the phone.

[Ponder Stibbons]

QuickSilver: Do it! Do it do it do it do it do it do it do it!!!!


Oh, and check back in with us here so we know exactly how far up his ass you managed to get it. :)

[LouisB]

I give the rant an 8. I would have rated it higher but the use of this unPC phrase, "Focus you A.D.D. retard" knocked some points off.I knock even more points off so that now the score is in negative numbers. That insensitive phrase is a direct insult to a family member and I resent it.

[Jackknifed Juggernaut]

Quicksilver, just make sure that it's not on "vibrate" mode. You might get the opposite effect! ;)

[plnnr]

Only the President of the United States needs a cell phone. No one else is important enough.

[Lord Ashtar]

I knock even more points off so that now the score is in negative numbers. That insensitive phrase is a direct insult to a family member and I resent it.
Oh, lighten up.

[QuickSilver]

Only the President of the United States needs a cell phone. No one else is important enough.

You better hang on to your's as well. The president may need to reach you for an important consultation.

[Revtim]

Only the President of the United States needs a cell phone. No one else is important enough.So we have them for luxuries. What's wrong with that? Everything ranted about in the OP can be solved by simply demonstrating manners, not limiting the use of the devices to the important few.

[LouisB]

Oh, lighten up.Fuck you.

[Greathouse]

I knock even more points off so that now the score is in negative numbers. That insensitive phrase is a direct insult to a family member and I resent it.


Welcome to the pit. If you were that offended by that comment, you may want to grab some tissues if your going to stay here. :rolleyes:

[Lord Ashtar]

Fuck you.
Only if you buy me dinner first, babycakes.

[Notorious Nik]

I knock even more points off so that now the score is in negative numbers. That insensitive phrase is a direct insult to a family member and I resent it.


I've got another direct insult for you. Get the fuck over it. He wasn't personaly insulting anyone in your family. He was making a general statement. If you get so damn offended by something you read on a message board, you really shouldn't be reading much at all. Lighten up, grow up and for god sake shut the fuck up.

Oh yeah, almost forgot the OP. I also hate cell phones. I hate that I have to own one now because they are so damn convienent. But I've got a rule with mine that I try to always adhere to. When I'm in public, the phone is on vibrate. If I take the call, I usually tell them that I'll call them back when I'm somewhere less public. If I'm in the bank or the movie theater, the damn thing stays off.

[Amp]

Don't get me started on cell phones and movie theaters. I love my cell phone but if I pay $8 to go see a movie, not to mention the cost of pocorn and pop, you better damn well believe that phone is going off. Why in the hell do people go out to the movies, pay all that money to see said movie but then sit there and talk on the phone while the movie is playing? WTF?!?!?

[mhendo]

You! Ya, the one with the blackberry type thing that never leaves your hands. Nobody is impressed that you're that wired.

I thought that the attraction of the Blackberry and similar items is that they are wireless.

[LouisB]

Welcome to the pit. If you were that offended by that comment, you may want to grab some tissues if your going to stay here. :rolleyes:
Fuck you as well.

[LouisB]

I've got another direct insult for you. Get the fuck over it. He wasn't personaly insulting anyone in your family. He was making a general statement. If you get so damn offended by something you read on a message board, you really shouldn't be reading much at all. Lighten up, grow up and for god sake shut the fuck up.

Oh yeah, almost forgot the OP. I also hate cell phones. I hate that I have to own one now because they are so damn convienent. But I've got a rule with mine that I try to always adhere to. When I'm in public, the phone is on vibrate. If I take the call, I usually tell them that I'll call them back when I'm somewhere less public. If I'm in the bank or the movie theater, the damn thing stays off.And you.

[Greathouse]

Fuck you as well.


No thanks. As a general rule I don't donate to unworthy charities.

You whiney little sissy assed bitch. Oh no! Someone said something that I can take the wrong way if I tilt my head just right.

Kick rocks, assmunch.

[TwoTrouts]

Back to cellphones....

QuickSilver, I am with you! These things are touted as absolutely essential, yet I get on just fine without one. This puts me in the minority, I guess. Case in point: I go from my office to a gym to work out. Last week, as I entered the locker room in my business attire, a teenager stops me. "Dude, can I borrow your cell phone?"
I smile and say, "I don't have one."
Teenager takes a step back in shock and looks at me like I am some kind of mutant!
(Mt teenage daughters agree with the kid, I am a mutant to be without a cellphone!)

[Notorious Nik]

And you.


Well good goddamn, that one cuts like a knife. I don't know how I'm going to face the rest of the day. How can I go on???? I don't know what to do, I've been added to the fuck list. Just when I thought life couldn't get any worse. I feel so lost.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled rant, already in progress.
(cell phones still suck)

[Bippy the Beardless]

I had a cell phone when on call, I was also paid well to be on call. I have no intention of being on call without being paid for it so I do not have a cell phone now. Some people do need to be contactable at all times even if they are not the President, but those people are polite enough to set their phone to vibrate mode.
I hope they don't introduce cell phone blocking technology, but instead allow on the spot fines for cell phone missuse. I would not like to have been blocked from going to cinemas or restaurants whilst I was on call.

[LouisB]

Only if you buy me dinner first, babycakes.Your place or mine?

[UrbanChic]

You! Ya, the one with the blackberry type thing that never leaves your hands. Nobody is impressed that you're that wired. You look more like a dog with a wireless fence collar than a savvy connected player. Knock that shit off. I wholeheartedly agree with this for every single BlackBerry user. Except me, that is. I know it's just your S.O. asking if you'd remembered to pick up the dry cleaning. Dude, I wish!

Hold the phone. Are you telling me people are taking pictures of their asses with their camera phones and sending them via email to other people? Are they hot? If so, where the fuck do I sign up?

[corncobpipe]

Cell phones are retarded.

I meant to post that earlier, but I suffer from A.D.D.....the fake disease.





jk

[Giraffe]

Your place or mine?Don't do it! It's a trap!


(I don't actually know to which of you I'm directing this.)

[LouisB]

My wife suffers from A.D.D. and it has had serious negative effects on her life, both personal and professional. The condition of A.D.D. is not something to be used as an insult and the use of A.D.D. with the word "retard" is something I find offensive and would find offensive even if my wife did not suffer from the affliction. Pit or no pit.

[JohnBckWLD]

...I don't even care that you can take a photo of your ass with the damn thing and send it to your buddies as a joke is a source of endless amusement to you.Well, it is alot safer than sitting atop the glass on Xerox machine (http://www.wimp.com/assphotocopy/) :eek:

[Trunk]

My wife suffers from A.D.D. and it has had serious negative effects on her life, both personal and professional. The condition of A.D.D. is not something to be used as an insult and the use of A.D.D. with the word "retard" is something I find offensive and would find offensive even if my wife did not suffer from the affliction. Pit or no pit.
We're all sorry that your wife is retarded, but if you want to pore through every thread at the dope looking for slights that offend you and scattering "fuck you"s, you're probably better off just starting a pit thread of your own.

[Giraffe]

We're all sorry that your wife is retarded, but if you want to pore through every thread at the dope looking for slights that offend you and scattering "fuck you"s, you're probably better off just starting a pit thread of your own.Dude, this is a seriously shitty thing to say to someone, especially completely unprovoked. You're a dick.


Note that my mod hat is off, and lying crumpled up in the corner.

[QuickSilver]

It's all going pear shaped, innit?....

Just when I got my highest pit thread rating to date..... (8/10)...... <sigh>

[Trunk]

Dude, this is a seriously shitty thing to say to someone, especially completely unprovoked. You're a dick.


Note that my mod hat is off, and lying crumpled up in the corner.

She's NOT retarded.

She has A.D.D.

I was just poking him with another stick. If she really was mentally handicapped, I wouldn't say that.

[Tracy Lord]

My wife suffers from A.D.D. and it has had serious negative effects on her life, both personal and professional. The condition of A.D.D. is not something to be used as an insult and the use of A.D.D. with the word "retard" is something I find offensive and would find offensive even if my wife did not suffer from the affliction. Pit or no pit.

Dude, I'm ADD and I thought QuickSilver's epithet was pretty funny.

Trunk, however, was way out of line. Unless he was being ironic, in which case: heh.

[lieu]

Holy fuck y'all, how did a thread about cell phones turn this ugly?

Not taking any sides here but admittedly I did cringe a bit when I saw a common disorder used as an insult, not to mention the word "retard", the use of which as we've seen ably demonstrated before never ends well.

Maybe LouisB is sensitive to this but I can't say I blame him one little bit. I don't really see how attempts to provoke him further do anyone any good either.

[LouisB]

We're all sorry that your wife is retarded, but if you want to pore through every thread at the dope looking for slights that offend you and scattering "fuck you"s, you're probably better off just starting a pit thread of your own.My wife is NOT retarded you slimy cocksucker. Go straight to hell and fuck you while you are going.

[Trunk]

My wife is NOT retarded you slimy cocksucker. Go straight to hell and fuck you while you are going.
See giraffe, that's all I was getting at.

[Ashes, Ashes]

Steering back on course.

About six months ago my car was having reliability issues and I caved in to my mom's insistence I get a cell. I've used it precisely 4 times and either the battery was dead (yes, I charge it regularly) or reception was so bad I might as well not have bothered.

Was I left stranded by the side of the road because of this? Did someone die because I couldn't call 911? Did we not have milk for cereal the next morning? No. The worst that happened was that I had to walk from the parking lot to the building to use the phone in there.

Of course, I'm weird about phones. I grew up so far out in the middle of nowhere, we didn't have a phone. It meant we had to plan ahead or make do or do without. All of those things are good. They taught me to be organized, prudent, and self-reliant, among others.

Thank you for the reminder to cancel my cell, QuickSilver. I am just not somebody who needs one.

[QuickSilver]

In the hopes that this helps everyone calm down:

The "A.D.D. retard" I so calously refered to in my OP is actually a guy who I work with, who really has trouble on focusing on one single subject long enough to see it to its logical conclusion. He's constantly on to the next subject without settling the previous one. It may not be A.D.D. but it sure seems that way. Plus, this grabbing for his hip every time the phone vibrates or beeps seems like compulsive behaviour. I know O.C. disorders are not the same as mental retardation but I was trying to paint a funny mental image in my post not give a precise clinical psychological analysis of the subject. Is there really no more room for literary license?

My appologies if I've offended any ADD's, OC's or retards. :p

[QuickSilver]

Steering back on course.

Thank you for the reminder to cancel my cell, QuickSilver. I am just not somebody who needs one.

I suspect you're not the problem child on this issue.

I'm not advocating anyone cancel or crush their cell phone. I'm just asking that people get over the obsessive fucking fascination with what should be a basic and mundane tool of modern day convenience.

[Tastes of Chocolate]

Back on track for you QuickSilver.

To the grocery shopper: YOU pick the cut of the steak. The person on the other end of your call can't see them. Same goes for the tomatos.

To the person I'm talking to: I'm so glad that you think the incoming call is so much more important then the conversation we are having. I swear the next time this happens I'm going to just walk away. (The same holds true of call waiting. I'm tired of being considered less important then whomever happens to call in after me.)

Yes, cellphone behavior is a manners issue. I still wish restaurants had the option of declaring themselves cellphone free. Let me, the consumer, decide if I want a phone conversation-free dinner. Let the restaurant/store/church/theatre install jammers, with appropriate notices.

And Bippy the Beardless. I have no intention of being on call without being paid for it So you are getting paid to be on call and to be reachable by cellphone. You also want to be able to go out and do things WHILE you are being paid to be on call and reachable. Does the person sitting next to you in the theatre or the restaurant get paid for listening to you be on call and reachable?

[Scarlett67]

Some people do need to be contactable at all times even if they are not the President, but those people are polite enough to set their phone to vibrate mode.
(Just using this statement as an illustration, not picking on Bippy specifically)

Funny how it's commonly assumed that if one has a cell phone, one has it turned on 24/7 and has given out the number to everybody one knows, with free rein to call at anytime. Mr. S and I both have cell phones. He keeps his on at work in case I need to reach him (he moves around), and I am finally getting into the habit of turning mine on when I leave the house. My mother and a few close friends have our numbers, but they all know that we rarely have our phones on; they have the numbers so that we can say "Call me on my cell phone" without having to dig out the number. Our cell phones have more outgoing calls than incoming ones.

[Guinastasia]

Oh god, I'm working at the funeral home today and I'm sitting in my dad's office, down the hall from the lobby. This guest is sitting in there just yak-yak-yaking on his cellphone, and I can follow his conversation all the way in here.

Jesus, conduct your business elsewhere, jackass.

[Bippy the Beardless]

(Just using this statement as an illustration, not picking on Bippy specifically)

Funny how it's commonly assumed that if one has a cell phone, one has it turned on 24/7 and has given out the number to everybody one knows, with free rein to call at anytime. Mr. S and I both have cell phones. He keeps his on at work in case I need to reach him (he moves around), and I am finally getting into the habit of turning mine on when I leave the house. My mother and a few close friends have our numbers, but they all know that we rarely have our phones on; they have the numbers so that we can say "Call me on my cell phone" without having to dig out the number. Our cell phones have more outgoing calls than incoming ones.

I know what you mean, and as someone who was required by his government to be on call 24/7 for specific weeks it grates that people without an excuse use "need to be connected all the time" as an excuse. b.t.w. no one knew my on call cell phone number except those who needed to know, definately no friends or family. I'm sure doctors on call have similar problems being associated with those who are just plane rude.

[Bippy the Beardless]

And Bippy the Beardless. So you are getting paid to be on call and to be reachable by cellphone. You also want to be able to go out and do things WHILE you are being paid to be on call and reachable. Does the person sitting next to you in the theatre or the restaurant get paid for listening to you be on call and reachable?
Sorry I wasn't clear. I had my phone on vibrate in any social setting. I would quitely leave any place I might cause disturbance and take the call at the soonest possible time that I was not causing a disturbance. It was easy even when I wasrequired to answer any call within 5 minutes to do it without disturbing anyone.
I am on the side of those who hate obnoxious cell phoners, just opposed to using signal blocking devices as a way to stop the problem. I'd much rather see fines imposed or people getting thrown out of restaurants/theaters etc. Since I was working for the government at the time, the person sitting next to me if a UK citizen was paying to have me on call and reachable, and I was providing a service which could possibly save the life of someone he knew. Anyway, the only call outs I did get were in the middle of the night and woke me up in my hotel room. I just appreciate that I was not confined to being within earshot of a land line for the periods I was on 24/7.

[kidchameleon]

My appologies if I've offended any ADD's, OC's or retards. :p


I'm ODD. You've now offended me! :cool:

[Enderw24]

My wife is NOT retarded you slimy cocksucker. Go straight to hell and fuck you while you are going.

Considering the endless debates we've had on the perceived slights from the word "cocksucker" (which, by the by, interests me about as much as the perceived slight over retards and ADD suffers) I found this mildly ironic and slightly amusing. You all may now carry on with your fuck you flamewar.

[LouisB]

Considering the endless debates we've had on the perceived slights from the word "cocksucker" (which, by the by, interests me about as much as the perceived slight over retards and ADD suffers) I found this mildly ironic and slightly amusing. You all may now carry on with your fuck you flamewar.No thanks, I'm bored now.

[QuickSilver]

No thanks, I'm bored now.

Er.... Nah. Too easy..... ;)

[ENugent]

I was at a Kinsey Sicks (http://www.kinseysicks.com/) concert where the performers actually announced that if a cell phone rang during the performance, they would come into the audience and shove it up the owner's ass. They didn't follow through when one did ring, but they did give the guy a pretty dirty look, and he shut it up damn fast. He looked pretty scared, too.

[lorinada]

I'm sure doctors on call have similar problems being associated with those who are just plane rude.

You'd be surprised how many of them are still on beepers. My boss doesn't even own a cell phone.

[TVeblen]

I was just poking him with another stick. If she really was mentally handicapped, I wouldn't say that.

It's also called trolling. Don't do it again, Trunk. I gave you the benefit of the doubt for maybe being oblivious, but your subsequent comments cleared up the ambiguity: you're acting like a jerk.

Yes, this is a warning.

TVeblen

[iamthewalrus(:3=]

Last week, as I entered the locker room in my business attire, a teenager stops me. "Dude, can I borrow your cell phone?"
I smile and say, "I don't have one."
Teenager takes a step back in shock and looks at me like I am some kind of mutant!I'm waiting for someone to ask me the same question. At which point I will say "No. Go use a payphone."

I mean, you wouldn't go knock on someone's door and ask to use their private phone line (for anything less than an emergency). Why the fuck should I let you use my private phone just because it goes in my pocket and not on my desk?

And, yes, I agree with it all. I ran into some friends from high school a few years ago, and we went to get some dinner and catch up. One guy took 6 fucking calls during a 1 hour dinner. None of them important. Luckily, the other friend remains a worthwhile human being.

[vetbridge]

My appologies if I've offended any ADD's, OC's or retards. :p

Well, I have a close friend with IBD. I am not offended, however. ;)

[Scarlett67]

Why the fuck should I let you use my private phone just because it goes in my pocket and not on my desk?
A few weeks back I called my doctor's office for some information, but the person who had it wasn't in just then; could they have her call me back? Well, yes, but I was leaving (for the gym) in about 15 minutes; but she could leave a message on the machine if I wasn't home.

"Well, can she call you on your cell phone?"

WTF? First, why did they assume I had one? Second (as I told them), I do have one, but I rarely have it on (and certainly not on my person while I'm working out). Third, I am not going to discuss my medical situation on a cell phone in public when someone from the doctor's office calls me at some random time.

I said I had a cell phone but would not be using it while I was out, and reiterated that it was fine to leave a message. Sheesh.

[Gala Matrix Fire]

Any nurses or doctors here who can regale us with real stories of real cell phones being rammed up real asses?

[FinnAgain]

Any nurses or doctors here who can regale us with real stories of real cell phones being rammed up real asses?

I tried to do a google search.
I should've known better.

[CanvasShoes]

The worst thing about cell phones not being all that important? I kept leaving mine at work, or at the store or something.

It's not in service right now and is in a box with other computer type stuff, and I don't miss it all that much. When I get a full time job back in my regular industry again, I'll have to have it hooked back up.

I'm not sure that I'll be all that thrilled with the "e-leash" having been free all this time. And family and friends who keep whining "you neeeeed to get a cEEEELL phone, I was trying to get a hold of you " I have one thing to say.

So? :D

[Jackmannii]

. (The same holds true of call waiting. I'm tired of being considered less important then whomever happens to call in after me.).I took corrective action on this years ago with my sister.

"Can you hold, there's another call coming in?"

"No. We'll talk again some other time."


Takes awhile to sink in, but eventually you may be considered important enough for an uninterrupted phone conversation.

[Imasquare]

QuickSilver, I am with you! These things are touted as absolutely essential, yet I get on just fine without one.It's not all that long ago that we all got along just fine without one.

[asterion]

Don't get me started on cell phones and movie theaters. I love my cell phone but if I pay $8 to go see a movie, not to mention the cost of pocorn and pop, you better damn well believe that phone is going off. Why in the hell do people go out to the movies, pay all that money to see said movie but then sit there and talk on the phone while the movie is playing? WTF?!?!?

Did you see Letterman last night? They had some guy go out and poll people on the newer movies to come out. Two of the clips was the guy asking the person to cuss him out like he was on a cell phone. The first was an old lady, who was pretty polite and didn't cuss at all. The screen flashed "Not a New Yorker". The next was a guy who proceeded to pretty much bleep out the entire clip. The screen flashed, of course, "A New Yorker."

[Qadgop the Mercotan]

I have two cell phones and one pager!

My job requires me to have the job-issued cell phone, to answer job-related calls. I need to be available 24/7 except when out of the state.

But the bastards don't want me using my job-issued phone for any personal calls. Nor will they re-imburse me for job-related calls on my personal phone. I have the personal cell phone because I spend a lot of time on the road too, and it's a necessity to keep plugged in with family and friends.

Frankly, I never turn my cell phones on unless I'm calling out, or (rarely) have paged someone to call me on the cell phone directly. My voice mails have not been set up, and everyone who needs to know how to get ahold of me knows they'd best call me on the damn pager, which I keep on vibrate mode rather than beeper. If I don't respond to that, then try me at home. Or at work.

I am determined to have my cell phone be a convenience to serve me. I don't know how to retrieve messages off my phone, check for missed calls, or even how to play the games on it. And I like it that way!

[Mama Tiger]

Since my hubby has been working a thousand miles away for the past year, having cell phones with unlimited cell-to-cell minutes has been a real godsend. It means we can talk to each other without thinking about $$, which is very nice.

He needs his phone for work, so everyone in the world has his number. For me, however, only about five people have my cell number, and that's pretty much all family (and a couple people at my long-distance office, but they usually call my house line since they know I'm home during business hours). So I use my cell phone pretty much for my convenience, not other peoples'. Which means I also turn it to vibrate (or completely off) any time it might bother other people. Or when I don't want to be bothered.

My dear hubby, however, developed a very, VERY bad habit a couple months ago -- he'd call my cell phone, and if (heaven forbid!) I was, say, in the bathroom or in the other room and didn't have my phone on my person, he would immediately hang up and call the house phone. By that time, of course, I would have just reached my cell phone and picked it up to call him back, and would then have to drop it and go hunt for a house phone. I finally went off on him after he did it for the fifteenth time in one day, and now he gives me two minutes to call him back. Two minutes. That's all I ask.

[Kyla]

I'm with Scarlett67. I have a cell phone, and it's almost always on, but I keep it on vibrate. I have the minimum number of minutes Verizon lets you have for a nationwide calling plan (I don't even know how many that is) and I've never gone over it once, in almost four years. I can go for weeks at a time without using the damn thing. It's a handy and useful tool. That is all. Unless you're a doctor on call, there is no reason for you to be a fuckwit with the phone. Be polite to the people you're around first, and the person calling you second.

[Kyla]

Er, even if you're a doctor on call, there's no reason to be a fuckwit with the phone. But there is a reason for you to use it when it might otherwise be unacceptable.

Poor editing. Sorry 'bout that.

[Bambi Hassenpfeffer]

"Well, can she call you on your cell phone?"

WTF? First, why did they assume I had one? Second (as I told them), I do have one, but I rarely have it on (and certainly not on my person while I'm working out). Third, I am not going to discuss my medical situation on a cell phone in public when someone from the doctor's office calls me at some random time.Why would this offend you so much? It's a mobile phone. The whole idea behind them is to take them around with you and use them when you are away. I can understand that perhaps you do not use yours in this way, but I can assure you that most cellphone users do. I wouldn't have given this question a second thought.

Moreover, the assumption that you have one would come from the fact that cellphone penetration in the US (according to Wikipedia) is approximately 66%. If you did not, then you would be in the minority.

Getting to the OP: Everything you cite is an example of poor manners or your overreaction to someone else's private activities.
It's a FUCKING PHONE. A device which, at it's best, is still an Alexander fucking Graham bloody Bell TELEPHONE!!!Mine phone is a phone, and a web browser, and a media player / recorder, and modem for my iPAQ, and a camera, and an IM client, and an e-mail client, and a calendar, and a contact manager, because that's what I want in my phone. Who are you to tell me that I shouldn't have such a thing? It's my damn money and I'll do with it what I want. It doesn't affect you at all, because I am quiet and respectful of my surroundings when I am using it.Get over the fucking novelty of it all. When I'm speaking to you, don't keep reaching for your hip and pulling it out to check who's messaging you every 30 seconds. . . Unless lives depend on you and your ability to respond to a call, I need you to focus on what I'm saying. Yes, "Ring-Dingy" recorded by your child's voice is very precious as a caller ID ring. But not during a business meeting, which is already longer than it needs to be.Bad manners on the part of the person to whom you are speaking or interacting. The cellphone just gives that person another way to be rude.You! Ya, the one with the blackberry type thing that never leaves your hands. Nobody is impressed that you're that wired. You look more like a dog with a wireless fence collar than a savvy connected player. Who are you to judge whether or not another person needs a BlackBerry or another PDA? I use mine to keep myself entertained on long stretches between classes and on flights and other trips. Again, if it's not directly affecting you, why the hell do you care? Someone sitting across the room tapping out an e-mail on a PDA is in no way your concern. I'm not trying to impress anyone; I work in a grocery store, for God's sake. No one's impressed by that, nor by my PDA. They're so widespread that they're becoming commodities anyway.

I can understand you pitting someone for acting rudely, or ignoring you when you're speaking, or whatever, but don't blame the device. Many people in this thread seem to hate the phone, but not the owner. The owner is to blame, not nifty gadgets.

In public places, like restaurants and libraries, my phone is on vibrate. In louder settings, like the mall or the street, it rings. When I'm at a restaurant and it vibes in my pocket, I get up from the table and take the call. Same as when I'm someone else's house. When I'm speaking to someone, and it rings, I silence it and will return the call later. Ditto on text messages. But these are practices of etiquette, and have nothing to do with the phone itself.

I'm kinda off the deep end here, but that's because I'm tired of these roughly once-a-month DAMN CELLPHONE threads, when you mean DAMN PEOPLE.

[mhendo]

But the bastards don't want me using my job-issued phone for any personal calls. Nor will they re-imburse me for job-related calls on my personal phone. Ah, working for the government, huh?

[Yamirskoonir]

In praise of cell phones:
In high school, I had a pager. Back when payphone calls were $0.25, I would often receive voice mail pages from family members who needed to leave important information (like what time I would be picked up from practice, etc.). Then the cost of a payphone call shot to $.035, and all of a sudden, for every legitimately important voice mail page I received, I also received at least two voice mails with this exact message: "Hey, it's so-and-so, call me back at MEM-ORON." FOR THE LOVE LOVE OF OG! WHY DID YOU NOT PAGE ME WITH THE NUMBER TO CALL YOU AT, INSTEAD OF LEAVING A VOICE MAIL?! I AM NOW OUT OF CHANGE FROM CHECKING THE VOICE MAIL AND CANNOT CALL YOU BACK!!!

:: pant, pant, pant::

I've never had that problem with cell phones!

Also: A cell phone is what enabled me to bail out a best friend who was in serious trouble at 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday night. My cell phone doubles as my alarm clock in the morning! Lastly (bear with me, almost done praising), I don't use a landline except for the one provided to me in my work office to conduct work-related business. I found that I simply have no use for landlines, as I'm never home at the moments when I need to talk to people and payphones generally suck. I have "only" 200 minutes a month and I have never gone over.

Now back to your regularly scheduled rant:
Conversely, the next time that fucking bitch of a "friend" BEGS me to go to a movie with her, and then proceeds to answer the five calls she receives on her phone throughout (I don't care if it's your mother checking to see if you've been raped/kidnapped/assaulted, she knew you were going to be at a movie for the next 2 hours, 17 minutes and 32 seconds and has NO FUCKING REASON to check up on you when you're 22 years old, so grow the fuck up and turn off the damn phone), I'm going to rip it out of her hands and hurl it as far as I can down the aisle (not into the seats, but down the stairs of AMC's tiered-style seating). May it shatter into many pieces on the metal handrail.

[Boo Boo Foo]

[slight hijack]

I don't know how great the penetration of "Short Message Texts" are at the moment in North America, but down here in Australia and in countries the world over which use variations of the GSM Network Technology, SMS's are amazingly ubiquitous.

Problem is though, they're only 160 charactes a pop and people use them (in my experience) as a means to say things they would never say if they were talking in real time - let alone in person.

Accordingly, I make it a policy to never send SMS's to anyone - indeed, I turned the function off. Also, I'm also very wary nowadays of people who are "quasi addicted" to sending SMS's all the time (instead of making a genuine person to person phone call). For mine, it's a form of rudeness, but edging towards the obsessive or cowardly versions of rudeness, if you know what I mean.

[end hijack]

As for the OP? Yep, it's true... it's the lack of manners, not the phones themselves, which is offensive. Recognising this, I rarely carry my mobile phone in public, and I deliberately turned off my capacity to receive Voice Mail about 6 months ago. I simply got sick and tired all the time of running up costs through retrieving superfluous Voice Mails which stated stuff like "Hi, this is so and so... can you call me back please?"

Holy Fuck I find that irritating. Seriously, if you've gotten as far as my Voice Mail mechanism, it means my phone knows that you rang - I'll call you back if I want to - so do me the courtesy please of leaving a message which states the nature of your business or don't leave a message at all. To do the former simply causes me to incur greater costs to achieve the same goal! Can't you see that?

[Cat Whisperer]

I took corrective action on this years ago with my sister.

"Can you hold, there's another call coming in?"

"No. We'll talk again some other time."


Takes awhile to sink in, but eventually you may be considered important enough for an uninterrupted phone conversation.
I love that. I will also use that for people who allow themselves to be distracted by everything going on around them when I'm trying to have a phone conversation with them (usually one that *they* initiated). Talk with me, or talk to the people you're with - not both.

I don't have any friends who are rude enough to take multiple calls while we're out socializing, but I think I would have to leave if that was going on. I have better things to do than sit here staring at my nails while you have multiple conversations.

[Yamirskoonir]

Forgot to address the OP: In my place of work, it is mandated that all personal wireless devices are turned off when on the clock. Anyone caught with a cell phone ringing during working hours would be severly reprimanded. During a meeting? Fuhgeddaboudit, and good luck getting that raise for the next several years...!

[Farmwoman]

I disagree that this is a case of the people not the device. I know more than a few people who are completely reasonable when a land line is inturrupting real live social life...they politely excuse themselves, let the machine get it, briefly tell the caller they are busy, wouldn't dream of taking a call while we were watching a movie at home. It's puzzling to see these same people turn into self-absorbed rudes when the cell goes off. It's as if the mobile aspect of the device deceives them into thinking these calls (or they themselves) are more important than anything else in earshot.


I'm with the OP. And stop bejeweling the damn things. That's just dumb.

[Farmwoman]

My apologies to any mutes I may have offended

[pantom]

Yeah, first time I heard a cell go off at a meeting and saw the person take it I was completely flabbergasted.
Like others, mine is only intermittently on and always on vibrate and only a very few people know the number.
Some people only have a cell phone, so I can see keeping it on more often, but it can stay on vibrate, and assuming it does, that also means it can take a message without disturbing anyone so that the owner can call back if the owner happens to be doing something like attending a meeting or riding a bus full of napping passengers on the freakin' highway, as God intended during long stretches of driving!
You would think this would be obvious, but of course it manifestly isn't. My bus rides to and from work are now a cacophony of ring tones and people talking 30 or 40 decibels louder than they would if they were simply holding a conversation with the person sitting next to them.
There is the occasional glorious exception, someone who can keep the phone on vibrate and carry on a conversation, right next to me even, without disturbing me. But this kind of person is very very rare.

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

Cell phone yakkers on the train..... don't get me started.

My own cell phone lives in the glove compartment of my car. Turned off unless I want to call someone. Left on only if I'm expecting a call back, which happens only for stuff like a veterinary emergency (no phone at the barn).

It's a tool, not a way of life.

[infamousmom]

I think there's a special circle of hell reserved for people who love their ring tones so much that they have to let the crank-ass little ditty play all the way through.... in the middle of the public library.

[infamousmom]

Takes awhile to sink in, but eventually you may be considered important enough for an uninterrupted phone conversation.
Oooh yeah. Call waiting has to be humankind's rudest invention.

Either the person you're talking with is worth talking with, or they're not. If they're not, for pity's sake just hang up the damn phone. Because you just know that someone much more important, somewhere out there in the universe, is just dying to get through to you. And there's absolutely no chance they'll call back if they get a busy signal. There goes your one and only chance. Thbft.

I'd love to get ahold of whoever it was that invented call waiting and lock them in a room with a bunch of cheap cell phones playing "Fuer Elise." Fuer eternity.

[LouisB]

Er.... Nah. Too easy..... ;)I was gonna comment on this, but I don't remember why.

[Cat Whisperer]

My apologies to any mutes I may have offended
Heh.

[Scarlett67]

Why would this offend you so much? It's a mobile phone. The whole idea behind them is to take them around with you and use them when you are away. I can understand that perhaps you do not use yours in this way, but I can assure you that most cellphone users do. I wouldn't have given this question a second thought.

Because IMHO I should be the one to choose whether I give someone access to my cell phone number, and I think it's rude for someone to assume that they should be allowed to have it. Furthermore, I had just given them a way to contact me -- call my home number and leave a message if I'm not there** (and yes, they have a signed HIPAA form on file to that effect). Third, being a medical office, it should have occurred to them that I might not want to discuss my medical situation when I'm out and about in public.

When I told them I had a phone, but would not be using it while I was gone, they seemed rather flummoxed. Does no one understand the concept of private time or disconnectivity anymore? (I guess not, what with all the stories of people taking calls while on the toilet.)

Moreover, the assumption that you have one would come from the fact that cellphone penetration in the US (according to Wikipedia) is approximately 66%. If you did not, then you would be in the minority.
So if 33% of the population doesn't have one, it still seems a bit of a jump to assume that any single individual has one. I'd still be inclined to ask whether they had a phone than to assume they had one and ask for their number.

----

**Reminds me of the time I was dealing with a business-machines company that wanted to give me a quote on a new computer setup. I had all but signed the deal with another company, but decided to give these guys a chance. I sent them the specs and told them to see what they could do -- but I explicitly told them that I did NOT want to receive phone calls from them, as I had just started an important, complex project and wanted minimal interruptions (and I didn't consider this extra quote very important). I gave them my e-mail and snail-mail addresses and my fax number. They called me THREE TIMES over the next several days with piddly questions. On the last call I blew up and told them I would not be buying from them, and why -- because they clearly did not listen to their customers, otherwise I would not have gotten three phone calls when I had requested NONE. "But if I didn't call you back with the information you wanted, what kind of salesperson would I be?" she whined. I hung up.

[elmwood]

I've got another direct insult for you. Get the fuck over it. He wasn't personaly insulting anyone in your family. He was making a general statement. If you get so damn offended by something you read on a message board, you really shouldn't be reading much at all. Lighten up, grow up and for god sake shut the fuck up.

And if the OP used "Focus you fat chick, so we can all get out of here ..." or "Focus you loud ghetto hoochie, so we can all get out of here ..." , and there was a similar uproar, would you publically say "Get the fuck over it?"

ADDers complaining about stereotypes and misperceptions of how their minds work should just shut up and deal. As for the offenderati that jump down someone's throat the moment someone refers to body size or race, though ... well, we'll just pull up a chair and watch the OP get pummeled. Uh huh. :rolleyes:

[Dante]

OK, lessee....

1. Rant about rude behaviour? Check.
2. Sub-rant started about minor aspect on wording of OP? Check.
3. Multiple posts about how each person is an exception to OP, as if somehow OP was written about them personally? Check.
4. Continuing sub-rant by retards? Check.

Carry on...

[Licentious Ectomorph]

I have ADD, and I wasn't offended by the ADD crack; I thought it was funny. Just sayin'.

Scarlett67, there are people at my gym who actually do bring their cell phones on to the floor, and either leave them on the floor in a corner (which strikes me as a bad idea), or worse yet, they just sit on the equipment while chatting on the phone. The whole phenomenon of people who can't stand to be "out of touch" for one minute just baffles me. Is it insecurity? I don't know...

[Notorious Nik]

And if the OP used "Focus you fat chick, so we can all get out of here ..." or "Focus you loud ghetto hoochie, so we can all get out of here ..." , and there was a similar uproar, would you publically say "Get the fuck over it?"

ADDers complaining about stereotypes and misperceptions of how their minds work should just shut up and deal. As for the offenderati that jump down someone's throat the moment someone refers to body size or race, though ... well, we'll just pull up a chair and watch the OP get pummeled. Uh huh. :rolleyes:


Ugh. This thread just got rolling again, I won't continue the hijack. If you've got a problem with what I said, let's discuss it elsewhere.

[Qadgop the Mercotan]

Ah, working for the government, huh?
You got it in one! They used to just let us pay the cost of the call. But now they've come up with a long list of what non-business calls are allowable (almost none, and dealing with emergencies and family urgencies only) plus they tack on a 66% charge above the standard cost per minute for each call, which I have to compute and add up and re-imburse!

The redeeming feature is that since I work in a prison, I'm not allowed to bring even my Dept. of Corrections issued cellphone into any of the DOC prisons. Nor is anyone else! No cell phone disturbances! They do let me carry my pager in tho.

The pager I have to carry. The cell is for MY convenience.

[vivalostwages]

In praise of cell phones:
In high school, I had a pager. Back when payphone calls were $0.25, I would often receive voice mail pages from family members who needed to leave important information (like what time I would be picked up from practice, etc.). Then the cost of a payphone call shot to $.035, and all of a sudden, for every legitimately important voice mail page I received, I also received at least two voice mails with this exact message: "Hey, it's so-and-so, call me back at MEM-ORON." FOR THE LOVE LOVE OF OG! WHY DID YOU NOT PAGE ME WITH THE NUMBER TO CALL YOU AT, INSTEAD OF LEAVING A VOICE MAIL?! I AM NOW OUT OF CHANGE FROM CHECKING THE VOICE MAIL AND CANNOT CALL YOU BACK!!!

:: pant, pant, pant::

I've never had that problem with cell phones!

Also: A cell phone is what enabled me to bail out a best friend who was in serious trouble at 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday night. My cell phone doubles as my alarm clock in the morning! Lastly (bear with me, almost done praising), I don't use a landline except for the one provided to me in my work office to conduct work-related business. I found that I simply have no use for landlines, as I'm never home at the moments when I need to talk to people and payphones generally suck. I have "only" 200 minutes a month and I have never gone over.

Now back to your regularly scheduled rant:
Conversely, the next time that fucking bitch of a "friend" BEGS me to go to a movie with her, and then proceeds to answer the five calls she receives on her phone throughout (I don't care if it's your mother checking to see if you've been raped/kidnapped/assaulted, she knew you were going to be at a movie for the next 2 hours, 17 minutes and 32 seconds and has NO FUCKING REASON to check up on you when you're 22 years old, so grow the fuck up and turn off the damn phone), I'm going to rip it out of her hands and hurl it as far as I can down the aisle (not into the seats, but down the stairs of AMC's tiered-style seating). May it shatter into many pieces on the metal handrail.

Hi there. Would you like to accompany me to the AMC every time I go? You'd sure come in handy. :D

You wanna know what's worse than a cell phone going off during a movie? (Not that it isn't horribly irritating.)
A cell phone going off during a play. Or in a classroom. Or a church or funeral service. That last one is the worst offender.


I am, however, with you on the pay phone issue. They're unreliable and invariably covered in germs or worse. And you can't play dorky little bowling games on them either.

[LonesomePolecat]

And if the OP used "Focus you fat chick, so we can all get out of here ..." or "Focus you loud ghetto hoochie, so we can all get out of here ..." , and there was a similar uproar, would you publically say "Get the fuck over it?"

Um ... well, actually, yes, I would.

[LonesomePolecat]

OK, lessee....

1. Rant about rude behaviour? Check.
2. Sub-rant started about minor aspect on wording of OP? Check.
3. Multiple posts about how each person is an exception to OP, as if somehow OP was written about them personally? Check.
4. Continuing sub-rant by retards? Check.

Carry on...
5. Latest overused cliche which wasn't all that funny in the first place? Check, and mate.

[LonesomePolecat]

You wanna know what's worse than a cell phone going off during a movie? (Not that it isn't horribly irritating.)
A cell phone going off during a play. Or in a classroom. Or a church or funeral service. That last one is the worst offender.

Friend of mine goes to a Zen meditation center. During the session, an idiot's cell phone goes off. Said idiot answers phone, has a prolonged conversation, and gets offended when the woman conducting the session asks him to go to aother area to finish the conversation.

WTF??!??

[DrDeth]

I saw a car a couple days ago. It had 4 girls in it- all talking on their cellphones! :eek:

I mean- can't anyone talk face-to-face anymore?

[kidchameleon]

I'm waiting for someone to ask me the same question. At which point I will say "No. Go use a payphone."

If they can find on these days. I drove around for 10 minutes looking for one once. After that, i decided to get a cell phone.

As for all the pompous asses who are offended by call waiting: Are you really that important? Too important for the other person to check the call from their SO to see if it's of utter importance or something mundane and click back to you in 10 seconds? Too important to see if a neighbor is calling to tell them that their dog got out of the back yard is running in traffic or just checking to see if dinner is on? For Pete's sake, if you can't spare 10-15 seconds in a conversation then perhaps you should evaluate you relative importance to the world.

[RobuSensei]

I don't know how great the penetration of "Short Message Texts" are at the moment in North America, but down here in Australia and in countries the world over which use variations of the GSM Network Technology, SMS's are amazingly ubiquitous.You don't know the meaning of the word "fear" until you've ridden in a car going 90-100 kph, and the driver (who self-admittedly drives "like yakuza") is simultaneously tapping out a phone-e-mail. (500 (English) character limit, here in Japan.) And now, with a recent national law banning cell phone use in cars w/o hands-free units, instead of holding the phone at the top of the steering wheel, where one can maybe sorta react to something in front of the car, drivers now hold their phones below dashboard level...

Seriously, phone e-mails (the Japanese equivalent of SMS or text messaging) are ubiquitous here in Japan. I've seen people tapping out messages while riding their bicycles, hitting an unnoticed obstacle and falling down hard, all the while never losing their grip on their phone, and continuing to tap out their message! ("Aa! Bikkuri shita, ochita! Itai...")

[Big_Norse]

I think there's a special circle of hell reserved for people who love their ring tones so much that they have to let the crank-ass little ditty play all the way through.... in the middle of the public library.And an even lower circle for those who like to spend their time on the train testing out ALL of the possible ring tones on the damn thing at full volume over and over and over and over....

[Notorious Nik]

As for all the pompous asses who are offended by call waiting: Are you really that important? Too important for the other person to check the call from their SO to see if it's of utter importance or something mundane and click back to you in 10 seconds? Too important to see if a neighbor is calling to tell them that their dog got out of the back yard is running in traffic or just checking to see if dinner is on? For Pete's sake, if you can't spare 10-15 seconds in a conversation then perhaps you should evaluate you relative importance to the world.


You know, I was going to refute this but I got to thinking. If I was talking to a person face to face and someone interrupts with a situation you just described, I would probably be okay with it. I suppose the difference is that on the phone, you don't know how long the delay will be and what it is for. Now on the other hand, if someone interrupted my conversation to start another one, I'd be a little pissed. So yeah, I guess I have to agree with you on this one, kidchameleon.

[kidchameleon]

You know, I was going to refute this but I got to thinking. If I was talking to a person face to face and someone interrupts with a situation you just described, I would probably be okay with it. I suppose the difference is that on the phone, you don't know how long the delay will be and what it is for. Now on the other hand, if someone interrupted my conversation to start another one, I'd be a little pissed. So yeah, I guess I have to agree with you on this one, kidchameleon.

Gee, thanks. :o Now if the person doesn't get back to you, either to resume the conversation or let you know how long they're going to be within 10-15 seconds, then they're being rude.

[Misnomer]

You don't know the meaning of the word "fear" until you've ridden in a car going 90-100 kph, and the driver (who self-admittedly drives "like yakuza") is simultaneously tapping out a phone-e-mail.My 57-year-old mother -- not known as having good driving reflexes in the best of situations -- got a new cellphone a month or two ago, and I have had to ask her repeatedly not to call/talk to me while driving. After 3 or 4 requests along those lines, I got a jumbled text message from her one day which she later apologized for with: "Sorry, I was merging onto the highway while I was replying." :eek: :mad: I came this close to going ballistic on her. I think I finally got her to understand that, bad as talking while driving is, texting while driving is worse.

I swear to og, it's like dealing with a teenager sometimes... :smack:

[Tastes of Chocolate]

As for all the pompous asses who are offended by call waiting: Are you really that important? Too important for the other person to check the call from their SO to see if it's of utter importance or something mundane and click back to you in 10 seconds? Too important to see if a neighbor is calling to tell them that their dog got out of the back yard is running in traffic or just checking to see if dinner is on? For Pete's sake, if you can't spare 10-15 seconds in a conversation then perhaps you should evaluate you relative importance to the world.

What is comes down to, for me, is am I really that unimportant? Is every phone call that might come in more important then me? In a business context, is the next customer to call in more important then the one you have on the line now (me)? 75% of my phone conversations with my manager (he is in another state) are interupted with a "Can you hold on a minute?" followed by a minute + of listening to hold music. I don't just call to shoot the shit. I call with questions that impact my job and how I do it.

I vote for going back to a good old busy signal. It was a nifty little system, complete with a special tone that would let the second incoming phone call know that the person they were calling was busy, so try back again in a couple of minutes. And yes, I mean this as caller 1, caller 2 and the call recipient.

[Burnt Sugar]

I'm kinda off the deep end here, but that's because I'm tired of these roughly once-a-month DAMN CELLPHONE threads, when you mean DAMN PEOPLE.

I agree. There is nothing wrong with having a mobile. You are not a better person because you don't have a mobile. I'm not better than you because I do have a mobile.

Some people are rude when using their mobiles, but that could be said about any situation, any piece of technology.

If you don't want to have a mobile, good for you. If I want one, good for me.

[Burnt Sugar]

If you're one of the people ranting about bad behaviour rather than "evil cellphones", fair enough.

[Cat Whisperer]

<snip>As for all the pompous asses who are offended by call waiting: Are you really that important? Too important for the other person to check the call from their SO to see if it's of utter importance or something mundane and click back to you in 10 seconds? Too important to see if a neighbor is calling to tell them that their dog got out of the back yard is running in traffic or just checking to see if dinner is on? For Pete's sake, if you can't spare 10-15 seconds in a conversation then perhaps you should evaluate you relative importance to the world.
I'm not a pompous ass; I just play one on the net.

The problem with call-waiting is that people tend to get distracted. I have little problem with a conversation being interrupted for 10 seconds once (second time is a call-back). I have a big problem with people who take the second call, talk for a couple of minutes, then finally get back to me. You're just in telephone limbo - you don't know if you've been disconnected, you don't know if they forgot about you, you don't know how long they're going to be - you're just sitting there waiting, and I truly do have better things to do with my time.

[Beware of Doug]

I really like the folks who just say, "Hold on," and then immediately call-wait you without asking if you care to wait. These are often the same self-important types who take every cel call, speak loudly, and in general feel that being reachable at all times makes them, and their calls, all the more important.

As for pay phones: In any urban area, we're now to the point that most of the few remaining pay phones appear actually to have been shoved up someone's ass. Maybe if this were not the case, cel phone obnoxiousness might be a little less common.

[pantom]

As for the "damn people" instead of "damn cellphones" argument: most people's egos are significantly larger than their brains. Cellphones allow them to demonstrate this to an extent that settles the question definitively for 95% of people using a cellphone in the situations described above.
Prior to the advent of cellphones and, in the previous score of years, beepers, this fact was at least kept under some kind of control, however rickety. That control is now gone. So, for the vast majority of those people whose egos outmatch their brains, much less their manners, we now have a device that allows them to flaunt their relative lack of both.

Phone Use in General

This is something that I've always objected to, and somewhere in the archives of the columns of Miss Manners is a column that agrees with me.
The phone in your home, wired or wireless, also does NOT need to be connected all the time, nor is it the case that just because the phone rings/beeps/plays Beethoven's Ninth - opening notes or Ode to Joy - that you are absolutely required to jump like some Pavlovian dog to answer it. I used to regularly ignore incoming calls when I was a bachelor and I was alone in my apartment. I never met a woman capable of ignoring an incoming call, however. Somewhere along the way, the idea of the thing you are doing/the person you are talking to, in the room at that moment, taking priority over the fact that someone else wishes to interrupt that activity/conversation, got lost. I don't know why. It's by far and away the stupidest and rudest part of modern civilization. Even stupider now that the person can, after all, leave a message and you can get back to that person later, if you so choose.

[Misnomer]

nor is it the case that just because the phone rings/beeps/plays Beethoven's Ninth - opening notes or Ode to Joy - that you are absolutely required to jump like some Pavlovian dog to answer it. ... I never met a woman capable of ignoring an incoming call, however.This struck me as kind of funny, only because I'm a woman and every time my father and I talk about cell phones I make that very argument to him: he grumbles about not wanting to get one because then he'd be "always reachable;" I remind him that every phone out there has an "off" button, and that a ringing phone -- cell or otherwise -- is not a moral imperative; he replies "yeah, yeah;" and the next time I see him we have the same conversation. :)

[Beware of Doug]

There may be a generational thing at work here. Papa Doug, who grew up the son of a small-town newspaperman in an era without answering machines, private lines, or even universal phone service, learned one thing and learned it well: Phone calls are important business. Always answer the goddamn phone, and if someone else answers, come when you're called.

During my junior high years, when I started getting prank calls from some kid who was either a) a little warped or b) nurturing some truly pathetic gay crush, I began insisting on knowing who was calling before I came to the phone. This routinely led to yelling matches around our house. Because you see, I wasn't avoiding some abusive shithead, I was shirking responsibility.

My dad still gets irritated now and then when I choose to screen incoming calls. I still have to fight the urge to sit there and face my "responsibility" to any idiot who tells me off. :rolleyes:

[DrDeth]

Note that last night on Mythbusters, they tested whether or not cell phone driving was as bad as (nearly) drunk driving. It was, or worse.

So- for those who would never think about driving after 3-4 beers- why use a cellphone?

[DrDeth]

Note that last night on Mythbusters, they tested whether or not cell phone driving was as bad as (nearly) drunk driving. It was, or worse.

So- for those who would never think about driving after 3-4 beers- why use a cellphone?

[DrDeth]

Note that last night on Mythbusters, they tested whether or not cell phone driving was as bad as (nearly) drunk driving. It was, or worse.

So- for those who would never think about driving after 3-4 beers- why use a cellphone?

[DrDeth]

Note that last night on Mythbusters, they tested whether or not cell phone driving was as bad as (nearly) drunk driving. It was, or worse.

So- for those who would never think about driving after 3-4 beers- why use a cellphone?

[Amp]

So, DrDerth, are you posting drunk or just talking on the cell phone?

[5que]

A little twist on Q the M's situation: a large number of people in our IT dept have company issued cell phones, for outages and emergencies and such.

A few weeks ago, the CIO decided to audit the cell phone bills.

He found that people were calling others in the department who where literally 20 feet from away, or in an office across the hall. On their cell phones. All day long.

It's now been clearly stated there will only be emergency, firm-related calls on the phones.

[Agent Foxtrot]

My wife suffers from A.D.D. and it has had serious negative effects on her life, both personal and professional. The condition of A.D.D. is not something to be used as an insult and the use of A.D.D. with the word "retard" is something I find offensive and would find offensive even if my wife did not suffer from the affliction. Pit or no pit.Dude, I have A.D.D. It's affected me tremendously throughout my life, both personally and professionally. But the worse thing you can do is treat your wife like she has some incurable, terminal, crippling illness. Myself and many people on the boards can and do live with it every day.

That said, get the fuck over yourself. You are in the wrong place to be whining like a little snert over an slightly un-P.C. statement. This is the BBQ Pit of the Straight Dope Message Board, and things here are un-P.C., like it or not. If the OP had been a direct unprovoked flame towards people with Attention Deficit Disorder, then you might have a leg to stand on. But for now, I suggest you tuck your tail between your legs and run home to mommy, because you're not going to get much sympathy here.

Adam

[Bippy the Beardless]

Are cell phones getting smaller just an adaptation to make anal insertion easier? And since it's being inserted analy why not combine make use of the built in camara for some in-promptu endoscopy.

[LouisB]

Dude, I have A.D.D. It's affected me tremendously throughout my life, both personally and professionally. But the worse thing you can do is treat your wife like she has some incurable, terminal, crippling illness. Myself and many people on the boards can and do live with it every day.

That said, get the fuck over yourself. You are in the wrong place to be whining like a little snert over an slightly un-P.C. statement. This is the BBQ Pit of the Straight Dope Message Board, and things here are un-P.C., like it or not. If the OP had been a direct unprovoked flame towards people with Attention Deficit Disorder, then you might have a leg to stand on. But for now, I suggest you tuck your tail between your legs and run home to mommy, because you're not going to get much sympathy here.

AdamFuck you.

[Greathouse]

Fuck you.

You're as useless as tits on a nun.

[Excalibre]

You're as useless as tits on a nun.
No fucking kidding.

Nice job, though, LouisB. As someone pointed out earlier, the unintended irony of using a reference to homosexuality as an insult while throwing a tantrum about a similar insult is quite inspiring. Plus it's quite the insult to me and every other queer on the boards.

Since we've discussed your wife's mental health, do you have an excuse that would justify your use of a slur like that? Normally, stuff like that would just slide off my back, but man - what an idiot you must be to do it at that time.

P.S.: I have ADD, and I wouldn't have construed the comment in question as insulting to folks with ADD in the slightest.

[Q.N. Jones]

My youngest sister is only six years behind me, but she's grown up in the age of cellphones. They didn't become ubiquitous with my contemporaries until I was in law school.

She carries hers everywhere, and it's on all the time. Even when she's asleep.

Even though I no longer have a land line, I don't take mine with me when I go out for an activity (dinner, shopping, gardening, etc.) Because I'm going dinner, shopping, gardening, whatever. I'm not interested in a phone conversation then.

Sis regularly tells me how stupid it is not to be "connected" all the time. Hell, she even answers hers every time it rings.

While people are on their phones, they're missing out on real life.

[Tracy Lord]

I delivered a cellphone smackdown in the movie theater today. I was seeing Bewitched with my dad (yeah, I know) when I heard a little jingle behind me. I expected the perpetrator to do the Purse-Dive of Shame, in which you struggle to hit the "power" button on your cellphone to kill the insipid ringing as everyone around you can clearly see that you're the idiot who forgot to turn it off.

Not so! The young woman sitting behind me, who looked about 13-14, put the little device to her ear and said "Hello?"

NO WAY, my young friend. I turned around in my seat, looked her in the eye, and said, "Excuse me, could you turn that off?"

She nods and continues to speak into it. "EXCUSE ME," I say, a little louder. Her friend (boyfriend?) hits her on the knee. "Turn it off!" he says. She keeps talking.

"TURN IT OFF," I say loudly and clearly. She mumbles "I'm in a movie theater" into the phone before hitting a button and putting it into her purse.

Ya gotta fix 'em.

[FinnAgain]

On a total side note, this thread would be much better if the title was:

I'm going to shove that cell phone so far up your ass that you'll be coughing ringtones.

But maybe that's just me.

[Boo Boo Foo]

"TURN IT OFF," I say loudly and clearly. She mumbles "I'm in a movie theater" into the phone before hitting a button and putting it into her purse.

Ya gotta fix 'em.Wait, wait, wait, wait... I got one better.

Earlier this year, I was out training on my race bike at about 7:45 am riding behind this stupid young female coming up to a pedestrian crossing in front of a primary school. And I'm watching this idiot type in a text message as she's driving. She's so intent on what she's typing into her fucking phone that she sails right through the crossing with little kiddies waiting to cross.

I yelled out to the kiddies "STOP!" And they did, thank goodness. And the driver looks up in shock realising what she might have done. So I screamed at her real loud "YOU FUCKING STUPID IDIOT!" And I reached in her window as I'm riding along side her and grabbed her phone and threw it down the road.

My goal was to try and break her phone. It sailed straight down a storm water drain.

She was in shock, and rightfully so.

[Brynda]

My youngest sister is only six years behind me, but she's grown up in the age of cellphones. They didn't become ubiquitous with my contemporaries until I was in law school.

She carries hers everywhere, and it's on all the time. Even when she's asleep.

Even though I no longer have a land line, I don't take mine with me when I go out for an activity (dinner, shopping, gardening, etc.) Because I'm going dinner, shopping, gardening, whatever. I'm not interested in a phone conversation then.

Sis regularly tells me how stupid it is not to be "connected" all the time. Hell, she even answers hers every time it rings.

While people are on their phones, they're missing out on real life.

So all those phone conversations I had with my now-husband while we were courting weren't "real life"? And all those heart to heart conversations I have had with various friends and family over the years weren't real life? I musta missed that memo.

Phones aren't evil. Phone conversations are not "missing out on real life." Sure, people can be rude and take calls when they shouldn't, but it is just silly to condemn them as "missing out on life."

[stegon66]

What Brynda said is true of course, but some people DO get obsessed with their cellphones. In my experience it's the punk-ass teenagers with whom I have to work. The little fuckers are CONSTANTLY on their cellphones, checking their messages or text-messaging their friends. Hell, it's gotten to the point where some of them have been issued warnings. But at least one of them circumvents this by hiding in the bathroom to do his "buisness." I shit you not - I've went into the men's room and found him just standing there playing with his cellphone. Sounds like an obsession to me. :rolleyes:

[Q.N. Jones]

So all those phone conversations I had with my now-husband while we were courting weren't "real life"? And all those heart to heart conversations I have had with various friends and family over the years weren't real life? I musta missed that memo.

Phones aren't evil. Phone conversations are not "missing out on real life." Sure, people can be rude and take calls when they shouldn't, but it is just silly to condemn them as "missing out on life."

Way to overreact. As I stated, I use a cell phone too.

I was clearly talking about people who are letting their phone intrude on every area of their lives.

[Gangster Octopus]

I am seriously considering getting rid of my land line and going only with my cell phone. But that is only because I am very, very, very important, don'cha know.

[Misnomer]

I am seriously considering getting rid of my land line and going only with my cell phone. But that is only because I am very, very, very important, don'cha know.Hell, I'm not important at all and I ditched my land line. If I can do it, you can, too! :D ;)

[Brynda]

Way to overreact. As I stated, I use a cell phone too.

I was clearly talking about people who are letting their phone intrude on every area of their lives.

Way to back off on what you said. :rolleyes: It was stupid, and you know it.

[Q.N. Jones]

Way to back off on what you said. :rolleyes: It was stupid, and you know it.

Get a clue. I may not have stated my point in the most explicit fashion, but my meaning is clear to those who bother to think about it for a couple of seconds.

I never said cell phones were evil--you made that up.

I never said your heartfelt conversations were not real life--you made that up.

All I said that by being constantly on the telephone during every life activity is making people miss out on some interesting stuff.

You pulled the rest out of thin air.

And I'm done with this childish argument.