Well if it was the standard anti-cellphone rant it would have been pretty dull!
I do turn off my landline in a way. It has a very handy ‘do not disturb’ feature that causes all incoming calls to silently go to our answering machine. We use that feature regularly.
If you can’t turn off the ringer, then you can always just unplug the phone.
I’d say that it’s okay at the checkout line, provided that you keep your voice down and keep the conversation brief.
I’m pretty sure one of my co-workers thinks he will bleed to death if he’s detached from his cell for five minutes. Someone might text him! With important information! Like “I’m bored lol”!
Which really does happen. I don’t think he’s ever received an important call or message at work, and he answers his phone all the damn time. Every two or three minutes. I have fantasies of taking it away, stomping on it, and setting the bits on fire.
True, but this way we can still get messages.
I’ve been caught at the check out lines too many times with someone talking on the cell instead of getting their groceries on the line and paying for them. And when you have to wait holding your bags behind someone who is going their their bags and saying “No I didn’t get the steak. I thought we were having those chicken-with-bacon things. Yes, I know Janie doesn’t like chicken, but I’ll give her bacon and eggs. Oh, shit. I fogot to get the extra eggs. Well, she’ll have to have a BLT.” All this while my Ben & Jerry’s is melting.
I had a phone that didn’t have a DND mode. No way to turn off the ringer. But it was plugged into the answering machine, so I’d just unplug the phone. If anyone just had to call they could leave a message. (Much amusement listening to a drunken friend calling me a Nazi because I wouldn’t pick up the phone. 
)
We took a school trip to London once, using two coaches.
At first pupils used their phones to text pupils in the other coach.
Then they used them to text people in the same coach. :smack:
Good timing.
Just yesterday we had a company meeting with the VP. Sitting right behind me was a lady who’s phone went off while the VP was talking only 10 feet away from us. She fumbled with the phone and put it back in her purse. About 5 minutes later it rang again.
I can understand you forgot to turn it off before the meeting but why wouldn’t you turn it off, or to vibrate mode, after it rang the first time?
Also I hate the idiots who have the hands free clip on your ear type of phone who wear them all the time even to the grocery store. Seriously you can not go 45 minutes without a phone call? Idiots.
My sixth grade teacher told the story of being in university and visiting an elderly gentlman. They sat on the porch, talking when the phone rang. Mr. C’s host just sat there and kept talking.
As the phone rang and rang, Mr. C. was getting more uncomfortable until he finally asked “Are you going to answer that?”
“Nope,” came the response. “I put that thing in my house for my convenience. Not anyone else’s.”
I’ve lived by that philosophy for the past 28 years. Phones should not be leashes, people should not be at anyone’s beck and call 24/7/365. I think people should have at least 3 hours a day in which they are completely incommunicado.
My main phone peeve is that the likelihood that a ring is obnoxious is directly proportional to the volume. Which is directly proportional to the owner of the phone habitually walking away from it.
We Are The Borg.
I’m always for being strung up and beaten.
I’d love if theaters had these. I’ve yet to go to a theater* that didn’t still have old-fashioned public phones. And you don’t need a coin to call emergency. I have seen restaurants without public phones, but I haven’t seen any without a landline which could be used in an emergency.
I know that blockers are illegal, according to the FCC. I would love to see that changed, and add rules about disclosure, so that those on call who simply can’t be offline for 2-3 hours are well informed.
*That doesn’t mean that every theater worldwide has them. It only means what it said - I haven’t been to one without public phones
I’ll only wear one when I’m listening to something (like now). I’m not talking though, so it may look like I’m just walking around with it on.
It’s not comfortable enough to wear full time.
I particularly wear mine at the grocery store, because I find grocery shopping solo to be terminally boring and therefore am usually talking to my mother while I perform this necessary chore.
I do not, however, talk on the phone in the checkout line. At work - unless I know something’s going on in my family, my cell phone is off. I don’t even usually carry the phone to the movie theater, as trips to see a film are rare enough that they’re usually planned in advance. Even if I have it with me, it’s off before the film starts. It’s off while I’m in class. If it rings while I’m with other people, I ignore it, but usually if I’m out with friends it’s off, too. Unless I’m hanging out with my family; then I leave it on but check the caller ID to see who it is before picking up.
Of course, I also check the caller ID for any calls that come in on my home phone before I pick them up, too.
Most of the time I agree with this. I have realized there are exceptions though, like our realtor. She wears hers nearly all the time however she is on the phone a lot and needs to be available virtually round the clock since her income depends on it.
OH MY GOD. I hate that thing. Remeber the days where if someone wanted to get in touch with you they had to call you at the office or at home? I don’t really remember bc i’m too young but I’ve heard wonderful stories. This could go with that immediate turn off thread not just for a potential lover but turn offs for just members of society in general:
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Those chirp chirp walkie talkie cell phones. The height of rudeness. Not only did I not want to hear your end of the conversation, I didn’t want to hear the other end either.
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the bluetooth douchebag clips. I’ll be somewhere at the supermarket or starbucks and a man is talking and looking my way
“Umm are you talking to me?”
(man points to the bluetooth he’s shoved in his ear with an exasperated look on his face)
“OH I GUESS I AM JUST THE BIGGEST FUCKING ASSHOLE IN THE WORLD FOR THINKING THAT SOMEONE WHO WAS TALKING OUT LOUD AND LOOKING AT ME WAS TALKING TO ME. I MUST BE A CRAZY PERSON! YOU BETTER BACK UP IN CASE I START SPITTING! WHERE ARE MY FUCKING POWER CRYSTALS” -
cell phones in restaurants. Is nothing sacred? cant we just have a god damn meal without the other person fielding phone calls? Luckily restaurants are starting to ban them, a trend i LOVE
I can see this getting abused, as I remember in the past having someone call me frequently (three or four times per day) about the same thing that I thought held lesser importance than they did. Of course, they didn’t understand that I was in the middle of the week before finals and working on a really intense set of projects that made the majority of my grades; apparently the task they had assigned me was much more important than me doing well in school. :rolleyes:
I hate when people are constantly chatting on cell phones at inappropriate moments, but at the same time, I am of the “shut the phone off when necessary” group and the “check the phone occasionally because I think I’m going to get a call” group. Sometimes I’m anxious to hear from someone who’s unavailable, but I don’t get upset if their phone is off or they’re not answering the phone.
My office needs extra help during the summer, and we try to give teenagers a break by letting them work four hours or so a few days a week. I have had job interviews interrupted by people answering their cell phones and holding a conversation. If it happens twice, I end the interview.
I hired one such person only to have her spend the entire four hours on her cell phone! Whenever I talked to her, she would tell the person on the phone to “hold on a minute.” Needless to say, she was told not to come back.
I have a friend who’s a professor. On the first day of class, he explains his policy on cell phones… “If your cell phone rings during the class, I will politely ask you to turn it off or set it to vibrate. If it rings again at any point during the semester, I will mercilessly make fun of you for as long as you’re in my class.”
I don’t know that he’s ever had a student’s phone ring twice, but I don’t doubt that he’d follow through on his threat. I doubt he’d remain employed, but that’s a different issue.