and you, apparently you missed a part of my quote, let me bold it for you:
I don’t care that they own a fucking phone. I own one too. I know how to set it on vibrate, of course. But if I didn’t, and I was heading into a place where it was inappropriate to have it go off (like, for example, a private memorial service), I"d leave it in my car. THere simply aren’ t that many people who absolutely need to be reached w/in seconds of the call. And, I suspect, the folks whose cell phones were going off, ** weren’t** those folks. Somehow, I believe that Ginny could afford to know 2 hours later, that she needed to pick up milk on the way home, or Frank was done with his homework.
I see them abused by self-absorbed middle class control freaks who block the aisle at the grocery store while loudly co-shopping with their yuppie-mates over the phone, using the camera feature to get a panorama of all the balsamic selections while glaring at us peons trying to pass. Then they ignore the cashier while they yack in the checkout ailse (especially effective when, using a bluetooth, the cashier assumes the yuppie said something to her, only to be met with a “how dare you presume?” look in return).
But my Marxist ire at cell phones as a weapon of class warfare are stymied when I see them used to loudly discuss baby-mama drama on public transportation. Cell phones are an asshole amplifier, regardless of one’s station in life.
After I got a cell phone with a vibrate feature, I tried it out to see if I would notice it. Unfortunately, I have a very active job, working with behaviorally disordered kids and horses, and I can’t keep my phone in my pocket or clipped to my belt. Therefore, I keep it in the top left pocket of my overshirt, which is never buttoned and makes the vibrate function essentially useless unless I’m sitting at my desk perfectly still. So my audio is set to the lowest possible setting, the People I Must Take Calls From At All Times (coworkers, boss, husband, vet) have special ringtones so I’ll know to answer, and it gets turned off every time I walk into a meeting.
While attending a marathon meeting the other day with our facility president and a very nice woman with an amazingly strong drive to do some fundraising for my program, the woman’s cell went off no less than 8 times. She’d glance at it, pronounce that it was her daughter, and ignore it. Two minutes later, daughter would call again. After the third time, the president politely suggested that she take the call, as it appeared to be important, but it took another few rings before she did (and then it was to take two other phone calls, from people who weren’t her daughter). :rolleyes:
A cell went off during my grandmother’s funeral- not once, or twice, but three times, and the tone was something completely unsuitable for the situation (had my husband called me during the service, and I’d been stupid enough to have my cell on, I actually think his assigned tone- Don’t Fear The Reaper- would’ve been amusing). I came thisclose to getting up and having a chat with its owner.
Vibrate, always. But I think I am in the minority, because whenever it goes off, and I am digging it out of my pocket to answer it, people around me can’t quite figure out what I am doing. It is also much easier to ignore, it doesn’t interrupt the flow of conversation that I am having in person.
The room is so fucking simple: Whenever a group of people are assembled for a single purpose, turn off your stupid cell phone. Using it in the grocery store. OK. Using it at the checkout line: Not Okay.
If I have my phone in my pocket and I’m anywhere where it might disturb people, I put it on vibrate or even silent. (My phone makes it very easy: I hit one primary menu button, then scroll a couple of options down to “vibrate” or “silent,” click OK, and voila, done.) But if it’s in my purse, I have to have it on ring. And if I’m sitting at my desk working (which is in my house; I’m self-employed), I have to leave it on a loud ring because I transcribe and wear noise-reduction headphones so can’t hear it unless it’s quite intrusive. But there’s nobody here to bother except my daughter and the dogs, so I really don’t worry about it.
But I truly never cease to be appalled at the number of people who have absolutely no concept of cell phone etiquette. Can we arm those of us who do with something that causes anvils to fall on their heads or something?
What about obnoxious two-way users? Please, if you’re having a convo in a resteraunt or similar, turn the loudspeaker off! It’s not that hard. It’s bad enough that we have to hear the chirps and your half of the convo, we don’t need to hear the other side, either.
Your Marxist ire at cell phones as a weapon of class warfare will be doubly stymied by the fact that at the Walgreens in a low-income, low-class, low-rent neighborhood where I work as a cashier, we have this identical problem, Bluetooth and all. Our hottest selling item is the Virgin $20 reload card; we literally cannot keep them in stock. And I have seen people using their Link cards (that’s food stamps, for you non-Illinoisians) to pay for their phone cards.
My favorite customers are the ones whose phone rings while they’re checking out, and they flip it open and holler into it, “I’M AT WALGREENS…I’M CHECKING OUT…I’LL BE THERE IN A MINUTE…” Obviously these are very important people who need to stay in touch with their unit at all times, and I hereby castigate Wring soundly for having started this Pitting. Don’t you know that even if these folks don’t have a Mission Impossible ringtone, still civilization as we know it would grind to a halt if they weren’t allowed to check back with Headquarters in the middle of buying Cheetos at Walgreens?
[I have a cell phone. It lives in the bottom of my purse. I use it when I need to call Homeland Security when terrorists attack my store.]
I keep my ringer pretty low and off whenever possible. One time, though, I was glad that I’d forgotten to turn it off. My apartment building had a fire a couple of months ago and we’d all been evacuated. No big deal, but still fairly traumatic. When things calmed down and the firetrucks started leaving, everyone - still shaken and tired - started going back up via the elevators in the lobby. While waiting for my turn, my cellphone started belting out its tune: Vince Guaraldi’s “Linus and Lucy” theme. Everyone, including the fireman still hanging out in the lobby, looked up over at me and started to smile. Amazing what a little nostalgia will do.
People here go everywhere attached to these things like babies clutching to nipples. Sitting on the bus, walking on the street, shopping … it’s really fucking annoying. Can’t adults handle being quiet or alone for ten minutes?
Maybe ministers and such need to start all funerals/weddings/church services with a reminder to turn cell phones to silent, and then stand there glaring at the congregation until they see people start turning them down? That’s what our V.P. does at meetings. It really works!
I add in: a coworker with “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw” as his ringtone going off in the midst of a meeting. The first time, it was funny. The second time, not so much. Of course, he and I were probably the only two that recognized it. He managed to silence it before it go to the punch line.
Just a couple of months ago, a cell phone went off while I was reading my Grandfather’s eulogy at a private service. I paused for just a second, but not long enough to cause embarrassment.
Heh. My cellphone ring is set to 'spring" or something. It’s an extremely pretty sound, surprisingly, but it’s only set to a medium-low volume. Which means if it’s in my purse I can’t hear it if it’s not right next to me. And I certainly can’t hear it in the car over the music.
Yes, it is annoying, and no, adults (and adolescents) can’t handle being alone with their own thoughts for ten minutes.
Another thing I’ve noticed with the public cellphonies is how often a mom or dad is shopping with the kids, and the parental unit spends all the time I see them on the phone, ignoring the kids. I don’t know about kids these days, but I used to like having some of my parent’s attention. We used to do crazy things like talk to each other.
Just yesterday while shopping, a middle-aged woman was shopping with what I assume was her teenaged daughter. Mom got a phone call, and proceded to spend the next ten minutes yelling about using Air Miles for something. You know, she could have been talking to her daughter about the same topic, for just as long, and it wouldn’t have bothered us in the slightest (assuming she used a normal volume for shopping conversations); people talk while shopping. That loud, one-way conversation, while her daughter just hung around (it was an older lady type of store - nothing for the daughter there), was far more irritating to me.
I had a pretty heated argument with a friend of mine who insisted on making and taking calls while driving (no, not with a hands-free, with the phone wedge between ear and shoulder). He’s not from NY, so I told him it was illegal AND made me feel unsafe, since he’s a crap driver to begin with. He told me it was a stupid law and it wasn’t going to change his behavior. From then on, I have insisted on driving whenever he visits. I mean, jeezus, it’s a 15 minute car ride, you can’t wait until we get there to make a fucking phone call?
This is the same guy who, while standing or eating with a group of people, will remember something he needs to tell someone and just whip out the phone to make a call. No, “Excuse me, guys, I have to make a call,” step over to the side, then call. Nope, right in the middle of a conversation of people right there, he will make a call. Insists that I’m the one with the problem for thinking this is rude.
The only reason I have a cellphone is because my BF bought me one, “for my safety,” since we live a hour away from each other. Otherwise, I’d never have one, and the one I have, I never use. The necessity of having one is way overrated IMO.
It really works!