And we thank you for that.
As a recent (three days ago) convert to a cell phone, let me compare it to a public phone. Cell phone service costs me $30 a month. My cell phone is my only phone, due to Verizon (Bell Atlantic) having been on strike when I moved into my apartment. With a cell phone, people can actually reach me as well, I can see who’s calling before answering, I can make calls from my apartment, I can recieve voice mail, as well as a host of other features. Altogether I get 180 minutes a month (with no extra charges for long distance) on this plan.
While I could save money by somehow arranging to be at a pay phone for every call I want to make, talking in public is not, in and of itself, the only point to having a cell phone. Granted, many of the people I know, and most likely myself soon, occasionally engage in completely gratuitious cell phone use, such as calling someone after losing them somewhere in Best Buys. But I go to an engineering school, and that sort of thing is to be expected.
As for the issue of rudeness, I think that it’s stupid to take offense to behaviour that does not affect you. Anywhere where it would be acceptable to have a conversation should remain that way, regardless of whether both participants are present. Since talking on a cell phone is actually having a conversation, I see this as a far better analogy than smoking, which is completely unnacceptable in many of the places where conversing is de rigeur.
I’m still waiting for someone to give me a legitimate reason for being annoyed by cell phone conversations, other than the fact that some people talk loudly.
I agree with waterj2: it’s stupid to take offense to behaviour that does not affect you. I can understand banning smoking in restaurants, as that tangibly affects people. But if I’m having a conversation with someone, the fact that they’re somewhere else and not sitting at the table with me should be irrelevant to someone observing me.
Also, I can think of dozens of things that people do at restaurants that are more annoying than cell phone conversations. Hey, let’s ban eating with one’s fingers. Or maybe excessive throat-clearing. While we’re at it, we can ban small children that scream at the top of their lungs during meals.
Come on people. This is a personal decision.
[Edited by manhattan on 08-26-2000 at 11:54 AM]
Sorry for the vB code screwup. I didn’t intend to underline the whole post. Can a moderator hook a brother up?
Feh. I’ve left this thread in GQ for too long already. Off to IMHO.