My hero: Man silences cell phones on Philadelphia bus

[Shodan]

I hate cell phones as much as the next guy, but I don’t see how it’s any of my business on a bus, any more than any other annoying conversation.

People In Public can be aggravating as shit, definitely. But you are also a Person In Public; chances are really goddamned good that you’ve aggravated someone at one time or another, even if you weren’t aware of it.

True dat. Especially that time I fell asleep on the bus and drooled on myself.

Regards,
Shodan

[MaxTheVool]

@Martin_Hyde

Here’s the thing, I’m not saying we shouldn’t carry cell phones. I’m not saying we should ban cell phones on a bus. I’m just saying I don’t get the people who complain about cell phones but then also say “but you can’t help but carry one because of emergencies.” Aside from narrow cases, most people could indeed get by without carrying a cellphone, so that isn’t really a normally valid reason for someone with an expressed distaste for cellphones to carry one.

We’re wandering down a tangent here, but a hypothetical person who has purchased a cell phone in case of emergencies, never or almost never talks on it, and complains about people talking loudly on cell phones in buses (or whatever) does not strike me as being hypocritical. They’re not complaining about cell phone OWNERSHIP (which they do partake in), they are complaining about cell phone MISUSE. As for whether it makes sense to own a cell phone in case of emergency, well, it’s one of those things where the vast majority of us won’t have an emergency (fortunately), and a good proportion of the emergencies we do have we won’t need a cell phone for whatever reason, but there are some fairly non-contrived situations in which a cell phone could literally mean the difference between life and death. And of course you might have a cell phone and be present at an emergency not involving yourself. Ie, you witness a car crash and call 911.

(On a related note, I suspect there are a fair number of people like me who own cell phones but basically never have “conversations” on them per se, but use them for logistical things like “hey wife, I’m at the grocery store, need me to pick anything up” and things like that. I might also bitch about loud cell phone users describing private issues on the bus without being a hypocrite, if I felt so inclined, which I don’t.)

[zweisamkeit]

There are also more and more people using their cell phone as their only phone. When my now-husband moved out on his own, he never got a landline; when I moved out on my own, I didn’t get one either. As a married unit, we’ve just kept with our two cell phones. We just didn’t really see a reason to pay for an additional phone when we already have our own with more than enough minutes and no worries about long distance calls.

[Lord_Feldon]

The FCC has put out a very stern memo (PDF) in response to this. In fact, it’s a CONSUMER ALERT, so you know it’s serious.