Elementary school concerts and plays - the last one I attended I think I was the only one actually watching with my own eyes, not holding up a phone and watching a tiny depiction of it on a screen as it is recorded for nobody to ever watch later.
Cell phones are now so much more than merely telephones - they have become toys. And old cell phones are given to small children to play with. But parents seem to forget that old cell phones are still capable of making calls to 9-1-1.
And so I talk to small children every day. Several times per day.
And if we are all on 9-1-1 calls and the emergency line rings we have to put a “real” 9-1-1 call on hold to answer a ringing line. It might be a higher priority call. And so we put that real call on hold only to answer a call from a toddler or someone’s butt.
Never happened with landlines.
Dang whippersnappers on their phones all day
Back in my day if you wanted to talk to someone you wrote them a letter and waited a month for a response
I consider making oneself available to any and all, 24/7 to be a very silly behaviour. Originally caused by pagers, cell phones have taken it to a whole new level.
I’m always surprised at how deeply immersed people get when they are using their cell phone/smart phone. I’ve seen people walk into poles and walls. Once in awhile the news will report that someone walked in front of a car and got hit.
It’s that disconnect from the world around you that bothers me the most. I try very hard to keep any public calls short and to the point. I prefer to stand still and focus on the call. Just like I used to with pay phones.
I’ve got to agree with the taking pictures of your food thing as being the stupidest cell phone behavior. Do people really think anyone gives a damn about what you are about to eat and drink?
Just behind that would be the blue-tooth users. People walking around appearing to talk to themselves. Especially annoying if they are looking at you while doing this.
Just behind that would be people talking on a cell phone in the bathroom. No one wants to hear your grunts and bodily functions.
AND you wrote that letter in fine legible cursive writing too!
What I don’t understand is why people want to cut themselves off from the world. Part of living is to observe and interact with the world around you. Sitting at a bus stop there might be a bird or squirrel scampering around. Just looking around and watching people pass by is refreshing to me. I probably won’t speak to anyone but there is occasional eye contact. I’m out in the world and its a nice change of scenery from my office at work or my home living room.
Why leave the house if you want to bury yourself into an electronic world? I just don’t get it.
I’ll be honest - I do it. I don’t do it a lot, and I use it as a talking point. “Look at this strawberry shortcake I just made…and it’s all for ME” I will joke. Or, “Supposedly these are the best ribs in NYC. LET’S DO THIS.”
Every time I get a conversation out of it. I don’t see the issue, really. I do it about 3-4 times a year. Now imagine that everyone does it about 3 times a year. People see it, then think “I see this every time I go out, so people must be doing this all the time!” when in reality they’re seeing one of the few times someone does it in a year. It’s simply that there are so many people in the world that it looks like everyone does it all the time.
I haven’t taken a selfie (yet), but I guarantee that if I did decide to take one while out there would be several people around me groaning inwawrdly, “Wow, what a vapid person. One of those awful people who constantly take selfies all the time. What has society come to. Why don’t you put the dumb phone down and be present, ugh.” when they’re witnessing the one time I decided to take one.
Anyway, I can get behind the people mad at cell phone users that stop in the middle of a pathway or meander around grocery stores without really looking. Those people actually cause inconvenience to others. Those who talk on the phone while being served at a business are also rude, as are the toilet talkers.
I think this is a good question. Someone I know plants a cell phone to his ear every time he needs to emerge from his apartment. He usually is not even talking with anyone, but it gives the illusion to passers-by that he is busy, and maybe too busy to bother (panhandlers). It allows him to walk-by people without acknowledging them as present.
I wonder how many people do this - just have a phone to their ear or holding their smart phone and not doing anything, just to give the appearance of being busy, and not wanting to be bothered. Is down time such a burden these days? Do people have to fill every second with activity? Might they have to interact with other people?
It also reminds me of how contagious cell phone usage is - on a bus, or other public place, as soon as someone brings out their phone, everyone else has to check theirs.
Why did it matter to you? At least she was dealing with something of relative importance. Sure, the scenery was nice, but if it was a choice between seeing the scenery on the road and getting to do the activities at the hotel, I don’t see why this is such a horrible thing to decide.
Because most of the time, moments like the one you mention are highly repetitious — often daily. After the three hundredth time nothing interesting happens and everything is the same as the day before, people start to assume nothing of note will ever happen.
Yes, you’ve got it. When you don’t want to talk to anybody else at the moment the easiest way to do that is to look busy. Phones are ubiquitous now so that’s an easy out, but in the past people used books, magazines, headphones, and newspapers just as often. Yet I don’t see anybody complaining about a person burying their face in a magazine on the bus to avoid talking to strangers!
I’d say that doing this sort of thing is the opposite of activity for my brain. How is reading something (on your phone) more of an activity than people-watching?
My biggest cell phone pet peeve doesn’t have to do with the actual cell phone user. I hate how people assume you are available 24 hours a day because you have a cell.
Sometimes I don’t answer texts or calls during my favorite TV show or dinner or because I don’t freaking feel like it. But some people act like it’s the end of the world that it took hours to reply to their “What’s up?” I don’t like feeling obligated to answer immediately and grow tired of the "Well, what if it was an emergency? " conversations. I clearly am not glued to my phone in every day life, but that idea seems so foreign to people that I get the skeptical eye.
Because driving down the PCH, with the windows open and the stereo turned up was one of the things I looked forward to most on that road trip–impossible when the person in the passenger seat is arguing with a customer service rep. (I couldn’t even open *my *window because it made it too hard for her to hear) I love my friend dearly, but I go on vacation to get away from that kind of stuff.
Why are people so mad that people take pictures of their food
If you were talking to someone and they mentioned what they ate for dinner would that be as loathsome a behavior
Nobody has brought up the shopping mall woman who face-planted into a mall fountain while texting, yet?
I take pics of my eliminated foods.
After going through my intestines.
Yes, I’m making a poop joke.
Lost cell phone meltdown.
I have worked with people who have lost their f*cking minds when they lost their cell phone. Not only because they foolishly didn’t insure an expensive item, but also because they stupidly decided to keep ALL of their numbers and pictures on said phone.
During a meeting last year, a grown man was almost in TERAS because he foolishly left his cell phone on a table at lunch and it grew legs and walked away. It was difficult to not start laughing as this guy kept going back to his lost phone whenever things during the meeting turned in his direction. He actually stated that he didn’t know his girlfriend’s cell phone because IT WAS ON HIS PHONE….
About eight years ago, I was working with some of the “lesser lights” of the traveling contract world and the leader of a crew lost his phone. He literally (not figuratively, I’m afraid) searched every square foot of an acre-sized steel rolling mill building looking for it. He would not do anything else, and he actually threatened to QUIT (as a contractor that’s usually enough to be sent packing several minutes after you utter it) if he wasn’t allowed to continue searching for his phone.
Luckily for him, no one took him up on his offer.
IT’S JUST A PHONE.
It can be replaced
The cell provider can even send you itemized bills so that you can retrieve most, if not all, of your most recent calls.
It is not the end of the world, or even your world.
It’s because right after they take that photo they are busily twatting it out to ther Facebook account glurging to their “friends” about it, which causes said friends to busily twat back more inane comments, and they are usually doing this while walking around or in the grocery store (see above posts), thereby wasting not only their own time, but their friends, and then everyone around their friend. It is a vicious snowball. 
I nearly kissed a worker at my local post office.
A man came in on his cell phone, seemingly oblivious to the rest of the world, waited in line while continuing his conversation, and then when he got to the front of the line & the worker asked him some questions, he had to break away from his phone call. Finally the counter worker asked him to step aside & said she’d assist him when he was done with his phone call. She then went on to assist the next person in line.
I think more people should take this attitude. You’re here, in front of me. Give me your attention or come back when you can. 