My lazy-ass brother used to text me from his room. When we lived in the same house. :rolleyes:
Caller ID helps when deciding whether to take a call or not in certain situations, but the only times I turn my phone off are when I’m in a job interivew, in church, or watching a performance/movie. The rest of the time I’ll set it on vibrate, and I’ll usually answer it, even if it is just to say “sorryIcan’ttalkrightnowcallyoubacklater.” I don’t get a lot of calls anyway - neither my friends nor I call each other just to chat, and my parents call only on weekend mornings (because of time difference). If they called at any other time during the week it’d be an emergency, and I wouldn’t want to miss such a call.
I recently judged a science fair. This was a big, regional event with over 900 students participating. I judged 6th graders. Several times I had to ask a student to put down their phone so that I could interview them regarding their project.
I couldn’t figure out who they were talking to, since surely their other classmates were back at class. (I also couldn’t figure out why so many 12yr olds needed phones.)
It turns out they were texting their fellow friends at the science fair that were 20ft down the line. They weren’t allowed to leave their spots.
If I judge there again, I’m going to refuse to judge students that are twiddling with their phones.
I could maybe understand commenting to a teenager on some of their first interviews that a ringing phone is a lesson to never have a cell phone on during an interview. It should not be seen nor heard - if it lights up on silent and isn’t stashed away somewhere unnoticable it is still a distraction. But that is only if they did not answer it. The very second anyone answered the phone, the interview would end.
I don’t want random calls waking me up, so we don’t have a phone in our bedroom. The only time it’s even slightly inconvenienced us is when my parents showed up early to return our daughter, ringing the doorbell about three minutes after hubby and I finished having sex. Turns out they’d left three messages on our answering machine saying they were arriving early. I think it was dumb of them to show up early without having talked to us, but what the hell, their timing *could *have been worse.
My first time in Federal Court in front of a mean judge, in a crowded courtroom. I have five minutes to convince the judge that my guy shouldn’t go to jail. About three minutes into my spiel, a cell phone goes off. The entire shocked courtroom goes silent. The judge stops me and demands that the owner of the phone step forward and relinquish his phone. It was another lawyer.
After reading the other lawyer the riot act, the judge turned back to me and my client and said “I’ve heard enough,” and sentenced my client to a year in jail!
For those all-important doctors? Patients have survived for decades despite their doctors not having cellphones. That’s what pagers are for. When your hospital pages you, get up and use your cell then. Otherwise your cell should be on mute, just like regular human beings.
I think people have become incredibly, pathetically, inable to just be by themselves without some kind of nipple attachment. God forbid you should walk around shopping and think a bit. No, we must all be surgically attached to iPods and cell phones, because we must be amused and distracted at all times. On the street or subway or bus or grocery store, we’re all off in a technological coccoon where human interaction doesn’t have to bother us. No one can hear you saying “excuse me, can you move your bag please?” or “can I sit there?” or whatever.
Honestly people, it’s not the end of the world if for ten minutes you don’t hear your precious tunes or text your BFF every free second. Let your mind be by itself for a while. Jesus.
I was at work a couple of weeks ago, and there was a jerk talking loudly on his Bluetooth. He stopped near me (in an aisle), looked me in the eye, held out a book, and said, “Tell Charlie to cancel the order!”
I looked at him, looked at the book, and looked back up at him, confused.
He snapped, “Can I buy this?”.
“Well, yes. At the cash. Not right here.”
It’s the first time I’ve ever had someone meet my eye and expect me to do something for him while having a separate phone conversation. Earclip phones necessitate careful checking to see if the talker is crazy or just obnoxious.
There’s a no cell phones sign on the store’s front door, but it’s largely ignored. It’s a bookstore, and it’s supposed to be quiet. We’ve found that the people who come in and have long conversations don’t actually buy very much, they just want out of the weather. They’re not really paying attention to what we’re selling.
I’m sure a few of them are having really important conversations, but they’re far, far outnumbered by the random chit-chatters.
:rolleyes: Because we were still stuck at leeches and trepanning before the invention of the cell phone?
I would love for those dampeners to go in at schools, at least…or are 14 year old children among those whose fundamental rights include possession of cell phones and ability to answer text messages during tests?
I may be misinterpreting, but I suspect some of this is pointed at me, and I would like to say you assume a lot. I meditate, regularly. I spend a lot of time on my own. I live alone, and I seldom speak to another person at all on the weekends. I spend a lot of time with my mind “by itself.”
So forgive me if I’d rather talk to my mother while I’m pulling things off grocery shelves than be bored by the process of shopping. Don’t assume that the person on the phone is using it to shut off the world; that may be the only time they can get in contact with a friend or lover or family member on the other side of the world.
I do my damndest to be considerate when I’m using my cell phone. I’m careful to modulate my voice, hang up before dealing with a cashier or any other person, and if I do inadvertently make eye contact with someone and confuse them into thinking I was speaking to them when I was speaking into my headset, I interrupt my call and apologize to the person I confused. So guess what? I’m the person who you probably never even notice is on their cell phone. But because you (the generic you) notice the assholes, you assume everyone with a cell phone is naturally an asshole.
Which, you’ll notice, isn’t saying that all people with cell phones are considerate. They’re not (Sturgeon’s law: 90% of everything is crap). And, yeah, we managed before cell phones and could probably manage without them again? So what? We managed without toilets for a long damn time, too.
Edited to add: A note: Although I mention toilets, I think that in the long run they’re a much more useful invention than the cell phone. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, the only reason I even have a cell is that my parents want me to have it and they pay for it. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t.
You are exactly right. Kids today (really, I’m not trying to be a grumpy old man) are growing up with the things. For them it probably won’t even be considered rude, but just the normal way of doing things.
I’m an aircraft mechanic for a major airline. Just about all of my co-workers carry cell phones, and it’s not unusual to see them working on the aircraft with one hand while talking on the cell phone. Or just wandering around on the hangar floor talking on it.
Sometimes we work individually, but many times we work in groups, as during an engine change which takes 4 people. It sucks when work is interrupted every 5 minutes because someone has to answer their phone.
I hate situations where I am working with a co-worker and we are in the middle of discussing, say, how to proceed with rigging a thrust reverser when all of a sudden his phone rings and he turns his back on me while he answers it.
Usually it’s his wife who can’t make even the smallest decision on her own.
I don’t know why management allows it. It cuts way down on productivity and can be distracting when concentration on the job is required.
I have a cell phone. It’s in my toolbox on silent, and I check it during breaks or at lunch.
What’s amazing is how many people who are asking for gas or food money have a cell phone they use to talk to friends while asking for help. It’s not a critical to get a job phone, their yaking on a pay as you go phone to a friend about what their doing.
Which is a perfectly reasonable philosophy, but not one that is in some way objectively correct/superior. Different people assign importance to things in different ways. Personally, I will almost always answer the phone, either cell or landline (I mean, obviously I turn off my cell phone in the theater or a job interview or something like that), but will, if I’m in the middle of something meaningful (such as having a meaningful conversation with one or more friends), quickly assess that it is not either an emergency or a trivially quick yes/no question, and then say “I can’t talk right now”.
Now, that’s obviously far less disruptive to the people I’m with than indiscriminate talking, but somewhat more disruptive than a super-strict “in-person-conversations always take total 100% precedence” policy. Is someone else who never has their cell phone on when there’s an remote chance of their having a conversation where other people can see an objectively better person than me, or one who uses their cell phone in an objectively better fashion? Are they more polite, overall? Remember, even if people aren’t calling you with emergencies, people are often calling with useful questions whose answers can be quickly communicated and which, if not essential, make their life (and potentially your life) smoother. What is politeness and manners if not attempting to make everyone’s life easier and more pleasant?
Really? You mean all those Doctors, NP’s, and Nurses I saw actually at the Hospital were products of my imagination? :rolleyes: They all go out and wait to be paged/called? :dubious: The complaints about 60hour+ weeks at the hospital were made up? :dubious:
Derleth- ER’s saved millions of people before the first pager was even invented. It is true that in the case of some major trauma incident they do call in as many as they can reach. But still, some can’t be reached. I do have an “on call” day, but there is nothing in the rules that say I can not leave cellphone range during that day. Of course, my job isn’t that critical, but still.
And what happens if the Doctor, etc are across town during rush hour? Does everyone just die then? :dubious:
The problem is why does your professor allow people to receive calls in class? If someone’s phone rings or beeps in one of my classes I teach, I give them one warning. After that point, I ask them to leave. It’s simple. So what’s up with your professor?
I gave up carrying a cell phone when I found out that I couldn’t call the Naval Reserve Air station up the road and order an airstrike on the cars ahead of me that were making the 405 freeway move so slow.
I simply can’t justify the expense for something that isn’t going to make my life more convenient.
I have two cellphones. One is issued by my job, one is for personal use (using the job one for personal use is discouraged).
Both cellphones remain off unless I am initiating a call.
Where I work (maximum security prison), cellphones are not allowed. Bringing one in is a workrule violation, and can result in discipline, fines, and even job loss. So 8 or more hours a day, 5 days a week, I am completely free of cellphones.
I wear a pager at all times unless I’m at home, or officially on vacation. If you need me, call my pager. I’ll get back to you when it’s convenient. BTW, I always keep my pager on vibrate.
This works really, really well from my point of view. It works well for my staff, patients, and family too.
I’m not even a neo-Luddite. My Mac and my Linux Box and my dying WinPC keep me from that.