It could be worse… One of my professors answered her cell phone during class. She then proceeded to talk to whoever it was that called for about 5 minutes! I always make sure that my phone is turned on during that class.
Although it doesn’t matter, since nobody ever calls me. 
Nothing compares to the sheer agony that is any public place in Winter Garden, Florida. You see, Winter Garden is a town populated mainly by those of a rural Southerncultural orientation, about 80% of whom are employed in construction or the skilled mechanical trades. You think ordinary cell phones are bad? Try going into any restaurant in Winter Garden, and hearing Nextel instant connect chirps followed by loud, tinny blathering about “g’damn drywall” every two minutes, I kid you not. There’s a constant din in anlmost every public place in that town, sounding something like “Graa bah bha jobsite bah grah bah bah garr air compressor gahh brah bahh damn inspector.”
One night, long after 5:00 PM, I stopped into a WG restaurant to get a bite to eat. It’s after work hours, but almost everyone still had their Nextels on their belt, carrying them with pride with the mullets on their head.
I have mixed feelings on this subject. I have a cell phone. I have classes. I try to only leave my phone on between classes. Obviously, this involves:
a) Remembering I have a cell phone
b) Remembering to turn it off before class
c) Remembering to turn it back on after class, in case my family has an emergency. This doesn’t happen often, but only a few months ago, my husband went into the hospital while I was at school. Things do happen.
Bearing in mind that I actually forget what year it is, my anniversary, and where I put my keys, all this remembering takes it’s toll on me.
And I swear up and down as god is my witness, I can go days and days, sometimes even weeks without a single call coming in on my phone. It’s mostly for emergencies and convenience. Not for chatting mindlessly. So yes, it stays silent. Until class begins, and I’ve forgotten (again) to turn it off. Dirty looks. I die of embarrassment. I quickly calculate which is more disturbing to the rest of the class - pulling my phone out of the bag and turning it off, thus making the phone ring louder and making more beeping noises? Or just shoving a ton of books overtop of my bag and muffle the sound? Should I get up and leave? I’m not going to TAKE the call right now, whether it’s an emergency or not.
So yes, my bad for forgetting to turn my phone off. But god, there seems to be an awful lot of hatred going to the people who forget.
Anyway, I think I could solve a lot of hassle if I could only figure out how to get my vibrate mode to work. My phone has gone off in class like five times this semester. My total number of calls coming in while I’m at school? Like seven. Ergh. The number of people who even have my cell number? Like five. Do all of them have my class schedule? YES!
Do I have a point? Uh, probably that even though phones may go off, it really isn’t happening for the sole purpose of pissing you off. Some people, like me, are just terminally forgetful.
My friend, who teaches freshman American history at the university here, has a rule about cell phones in her classes. If your phone rings, she answers it.
“Hello? No, he’s busy now. How do I know? I’m his history professor. Call him back after 1:30, fucknut!” 
As a favor to my friend Jonathon, I agreed to go to a fraternity formal with a brother of his who didn’t have a date. The mystery date wanted to get together for coffee or something so we weren’t total strangers at the event, but we couldn’t coordinate schedules, so he just dropped by my room one evening.
We were chatting a little, not exactly hitting it off, but not completely nonplussed with each other (so far as I could tell), when his cell phone rang. I expected him to either turn it off or answer it with “Hello? Hi! Can I call you back?” But no. He’d known me for about three minutes (all of which were spent in my 10-by-11 foot dorm room) when he spent five minutes on the cell phone while I felt uncomfortable and tried to look like I wasn’t eavesdropping. I probably wouldn’t have been quite so offended if, when the girl on the other end asked “So whatcha doing?” he hadn’t said “Oh, nothing.”
People, there are times when a cell phone conversation is appropriate and there are times when it would be much more polite to let people who are actually in your presence take first priority. Learn the difference between these times and we will probably get along.
I remember once during an Italian class, a girl got a call on her cellphone and answered it, and started to converse.
Now this is a small class. The redoubtable Professoressa Picciano looks at her, and addresses her in the tone of voice she used to inform us that in Italian, the masculine dominates the feminine “in language ONLY”:
“Non si utilizanno i telefoni cellulari nella classe d’italiano!”
She keeps talking, just a little faster now.
“NON **SI UTILIZANNO I TELEFONI CELLULARI NELLA **CLASSE D’ITALIANO!!!”
:eek:
She hung up.
A week later, she did it again. :mad:
I was “auditing” a class at the college I work for. (Well, actually, no; I had a crush on the teacher.) She was in mid-flow when some kid’s cellphone rang. “YOU’RE NOT GOING TO ANSWER THAT, ARE YOU?” she roared. There was about a minute of just the sound of the ringer, while everyone stared at the kid, who was too petrified to even touch the phone.
<huge sigh> You go, girl!
You do not know the full depth of cell phone rudeness until your midwife proceeds to have someone hold her phone up to her ear when it rings, and has a five minute conversation while performing an internal examination . Cell phones and fingers up the pundatta do not mix .
I would love to have this person as my instructor.
Look, I know there are times when you’re expecting an important call. It happens. But, and this is just a crazy idea here, what if we told people not to call us at certain times because we have things planned with other, present, human beings. If it’s just someone unexpectedly calling, than it’s a call that can wait an hour and a half to be returned.
Now this is just me, but I have certain expectations in regards to my dinner companions. I have rules, and these are just MY rules. One rule is that my dinner companions have dibs on my time, and I have dibs on their’s. I would never think to even bring a cell phone to the dinner table. Now, on occasion, I have eaten with people who had cell phones at the table because their work demanded it. I understand this. But if you answer a cell phone and engage in a personal conversation on that phone with me at the table, then it is the absolute last time we will share a meal.
Really, what are your dinner companions supposed to be doing while you talk on the phone? Stare at their shoes? Hold the last though they had to continue the dinner conversation when your call is over? Wait patiently for you?
It’s rude behaviour.
" Bearing in mind that I actually forget what year it is, my anniversary, and where I put my keys, all this remembering takes it’s toll on me."
It is now 2002, our anniversary is January 1, and OUR keys are usually in your pocket.
Now, back to those damn cel phones.
When mine rings it is either Lola or my workplace, neither make trivial use of the fact I carry a phone and leave it on 24/7.
I work with medically fragile persons and my phone is just another tool in case I run into an emergency situation.
However, if I am in a public place such as a theatre or church the only person who will know my phone is ringing is me and I will take my call outside.
It’s just a matter of practicing good manners, sadly… many people don’t.
Absolutely.
As a teacher, I find a cell phone useful in a couple of ways:
On School trips, if you get held up in traffic, you can phone the parents so they are not kept waiting unnecessarily.
If running a sports session out-of-doors, I can call for medical help in case of an injury.
As a teacher, I find a cell phone incredibly irritating in the hands of a pupil.
Our school rules covering them include:
- Mobile phones are not to be used during lessons, study periods, games, activities or supervised homework times…
- Inappropriate use of a mobile phone is likely to lead to confiscation…
If parents need to contact a pupil urgently, we have a receptionist on duty at all times.
I fully agree with all the above stories of class disturbance, and can recommend confiscation. Nobody gets a phone call in my lessons.
I once helped run a school trip in two coaches. The journey took about an hour. The pupils asked politely if they could make phone calls. Sure, why not.
They phoned people on the same coach, they phoned people on the other coach…
Practically all conversations consisted of ‘I’m on the coach! Who are you sitting next to? Do you want to speak to Phil - oh, he’s on his phone. Did you see that car that just overtook us?..’
Don’t get me started on text messaging…
Oh, and Caught@Work, I’ve probably heard several thousand phone calls by pupils, including quite a few in the School Library. Most of them start with a pop tune which the owner lets ring a few times so they can listen to it. Then they begin the conversation with ‘How are you? Do you want to meet after School? I can’t really talk now…’
I have never heard any serious news sent to a pupil by phone. In fact, I think it would be a bad idea. If there is a death or similar tragedy, surely it would be much better for a sympathetic adult to break the news in person and offer to help.
spooje, I hear ya.
I have heard cell phones ringing in church, during funeral services, weddings, etc. At a meeting I attend, one of the first things the person leading the meeting says is “As a courtesy to others, please turn off all pagers and cell phones, or set them in vibrate.” Literally EVERY TIME, a cell phone rings within 10 minutes. Oh, sorry, did you mean ME?!? Yes, you stupid bitch, we meant you.
I had a great prof who would go “Judge Ito” on anyone whose cell phone rang in class. He would go over and TAKE THE PHONE. He figured that putting “NO CELL PHONES IN CLASS” in the syllabus and mentioning it numerous times during the first class session would be sufficient for people of average intelligence. Wrong again.
I have a cell phone for MY convenience, not someone else’s. If I am in a meeting or something, it is turned off or on a vibrating ring.
I often wonder about the people who are such rude cell users. Are their manners in other areas equally bad? I cannot stand my generation sometimes, which seems to feel entitled to anything it wants and damn everybody else.
I’ll bet their mothers would be ashamed of their lack of class and good manners.
Cell phones…argh. All in all, they are a fairly good thing, but peopel who are rude with them piss me off.
I do theatre a lot, both performing and watching. EVERY show I am in/go to there is a notice to turn off or put into “silent mode” allp agers, cell phones, beepers, and electronic devices. Yet there is ALWAYS someone who gets a call or page. This is extremely annoying, ESPECIALLY to the actors on stage. I think that next time I’m on stage and that happens, I will stop to show to yell at whoever has the phone. That’ll show em!
The strangest one I’ve ever experienced is the time I was watching a sneak preview of Small Time Crooks.
Woody Allen flick, there’s a scene where Tracy Ullman is at a ritzy concert and gets a phone call. She proceeds to loudly talk to the caller, disrupting everyone and nearly stopping the concert.
Within 10 minutes, the guy behind me gets a phone call and proceeds to carry on a conversation. Hi. Excuse me. Were you just not watching what happened in the movie or did the point bounce right off your thick skull?
What I enjoy is watching a mom tryong to catch a child bouncing off of the walls of the MegaCrapMart and still carry on that all important cell concersation.
Or when you hear someone “I’m at the grocery store. no,NO, THE GROCERY STORE! no i will not bring you any ice cream, NO I DO NOT want to talk to the DOG!” Now do we need any actual food?!"
My all-time, hands-down favorite “cell phone event” ocurred about ten minutes into the main feature at a movie.
Only about a half-full house, and a small theater to boot, but sure enough, some guy’s cell rings (I believe the tone was “Charge of the Light Brigade”) and he says- during a non-gunplay dialogue filled portion of the flick- “Hello?” loudly enough that most of the theater heard him.
Without missing a single beat, some fellow in the back, who sounded like a truckdriver, in a voice easily loud enough for the whole theater to hear, says:
“Yes, Mr. Jones? I’m calling to inform you that you’re an inconsiderate asshole. Do you fart in church, too?”
The whole room started laughing. The guy with the phone got up and left in a huff, and once the door closed, a few people applauded.
Damn, I really must remember that one.
As soon as a portable and effective cellphone-signal-blocker becomes available for less than a grand, I’m buying one.
There is a health club in Chicago, the East Bank Club, where members call each other on different Stair Masters or on different chaise lounges on the sun deck- to jabber about last night’s dinner date with whomever- these “new types” are pathetic (and lazy)