Note: This isn’t a dig at all cell phone users, just the ones of whom I speak in this thread, and those like them.
Last night, we did our first of three Russian Revolution concerts at Phoenix Symphony Hall. During the first half, which only lasted a half hour I must note (not that it’s excusable otherwise), three cell phones rang out in the audience. After intermission, the conductor went to the podium, turned to face the audience, and said something to the effect of, “I have received word from the phone company that there will be no incoming phone calls for any of the audience members during this part of the performance.” Good for him. If you’re going to a concert, or opera, or whatever, turn your damn cell phone off during the performance. If you’re so important that you can’t go to an hour-and-a-half concert without having to worry about an urgent phone call, then don’t go. Dumbasses.
This is a big pet peeve here in SF. The mayor is talking of banning cell phones at press conferences. Also, many restraunts are now putting in walls that block cell phone signals. I hope theaters do it next.
This is a major problem in my Chemistry class right now. At the beginning of the semester the professor stated that cell phones were to be turned off during the lecture. And what happens today? Midway through class—
BRRRRIIIIIINNNNNGGG
It least it was an actual ring and not some stupid song.
They had a funny scene in it where Tracy Ullman is at an exclusive musical recital and her cell phone goes off. She starts talking loudly and interupts the entire rendition.
Nearly everyone in the audience is laughing.
Scene ends and, no less than two minutes later, the person in back of us has a cell phone that starts ringing. He answers it! This dumbfuck carries on for at least a minute completely obvlivious to the fact that the movie had just finished making fun of him.
You can be disqualified from a public exam in the UK if you have a mobile phone (because you can send / receive text messages).
So there are 5 of us teachers supervising about 100 pupils in a large hall. We announce cell phones are forbidden. The exam starts.
A phone goes off. :eek:
We start trying to spot it (tricky with the echoes).
Then one of the teachers goes bright red and runs out the hall…
Urban myth (when phones first came out).
Bloke on train makes it obvious he’s got a cell phone. Suddenly there’s a medical emergency. Passengers tell him to phone ahead for an ambulance.
He admits the phone is just a dummy :o
The thing about the urgent phone calls is that they never come when you’re expecting them. That’s one of the main reasons to have a cell phone - that you can be out and about and still reachable in the event that something urgent comes up.
That being said, I agree with the OP’s overall point. The cell phone seems to be very effective in highlighting poor manners. Really, there’s no reason that you shouldn’t be able to have your phone on you at all times, provided that you have some respect for the folks around you. The phone can be set to vibrate instead of ring, allowing you to receive calls without disturbing anyone else. Got a call you simply must answer? Fine. Quietly excuse yourself to someplace where you can speak at a reasonable volume.
Damn, that’s frustrating. I completely understand their reasoning, and it’s not all that suprising that there are folks in support of blocking the cell signals in public establishments. However, as a cell phone user that takes the extra 5 seconds to make my mobile phone use as low impact as possible on those around me, I can’t help but feel some distress as I miss calls and lose signals in more and more places, and all just because some people are rude.
The thing is, at an orchestral concert, opera, musical, etc. it’s also rude to exit or enter the auditorium while the performance is underway. That being said, I don’t have a problem with a phone set to vibrate and a type-messaging interface screen thingy (whatever it’s called).
They can’t actually do that, but if it shamed a few member into turning there phones off, then I guess its not too bad.
That is the kind of thing that makes me mad. I used to have a job where I had to carry the duty phone. The duty phone had no vibrator mode, so I had to carry it anywhere, with the threat of it going off. It went off a few times in inappropiate places, and people always gave we really dirty looks, because I look like a slacker. The problem was I was that fucking important, because if that phone rang, it was possible that the 911 service for the city had gone down, and people might end up dieing, because I worked for the Phone company in an position that was mission critical, but not determined important enough for a 24 hour shop, so I was always on call. I have since quit the job, to reduce the stress in my life, but there was no way in hell I was going to avoid all social situations. The difference is I could answer the phone after 5 seconds, as opposed to those militant parents who let their anoying infant brat cry for ten minutes before they do anything about it.
Exactly. How would a phone ringing be more annoying than someone standing up, asking everyone in the aisle to let them past, then opening up the door to the outside letting light in, etc etc. Emergency calls? Why are they calling you? Call 911!
What I want to know is, what did people do before cell phones? We went out to social events, and somehow people survived.
I can see having a cell phone always being on for people like surgeons, or other people in vital and crucial professions, like wolfman’s former job. But for the average schmoe? I don’t think so. I suspect that often these “emergency” calls really THAT much of an emergency. And if they are all that crucial and desperate, 911 needs to be called first.
You mean average as in parents who take a rare night out, leaving their children with a sitter? When the child is hurt in a terrible accident, has their appendix burst, etc., and is rushed to the hospital and the surgeons aren’t allowed to operate because the parents are sitting in a theater/movie/concert/restaurant and are not allowed to disturb the other patrons with their cell phone/beepers? Would this constitute an emergency and glean forgiveness from your dried up raisin of a heart?
Please define ‘average’. With children or without would be ‘average’. What age range would be ‘average’. Would the geographical location of someone deem them ‘average’? Would their job or lack of thereof, deem someone ‘average’?
The OP makes a valid point. Cell phones are/can be annoying to the general population.
[sarcasm] However, on the other hand, they have become a necessary evil for many ‘average’ people, not just the ‘important’ ones. So, for those of you that either have to carry them or just plain want to–please stay home so you can answer your phone in the privacy of your own home/apartment/cardboard box.[/sarcasm]
First, let me start with the qualifiers:
I work in the wireless industry. (Perhaps the username was a clue. )
I have a “cell” phone.
I agree with the gripe of the OP.
These are the rules I operate (it) by:
Don’t talk on phone when driving in traffic (open highway use only - or pull over). This is especially the case since I have a stick-shift car.
Turn off at all events where quiet is expected (plays, concerts, etc.) (Most others could use vibrate/message mode if this is not an option.)
If I’m in conversation/meeting with someone and the phone rings, I generally look at the Caller ID and either ignore it (that’s what voicemail is for) or say “excuse me” and then answer and generally ask the caller if I can call them back. This is like call-waiting, it’s rude to give the “second-comer” priority over the person you’re currently interacting with, especially if it’s in person.
In restaurants or other semi-quiet public places, I put the phone on “meeting” mode where it will only beep once to signal a call and not actually “ring”.
If it rings/beeps in a restaurant, answer and then quickly go outside or the foyer if I’m going to continue the call.
When talking on the phone, keep talk volume to “normal” levels. They’re sophisticated-enough instruments, one doesn’t need to shout. Just because you can’t hear the other person because of ambient noise at your end, doesn’t mean s/he can’t hear you. If there’s noise at their end, then they should go somewhere where they can hear you.
I’m probably forgetting a couple others that are just second nature.
Hopefully this qualifies me as a responsible/courteous user.
SO, now to comment on the quote:
As I understand it, “blocking” (or “jamming”) of “cell” signals, while an attractive solution to some in concept (and technically possible), is actually illegal in the USA. This is federal law. The licenses that the cell companies haves paid $billions for* entitles them to carry/provide/send that signal everywhere in their licensed area excluding only some very limited spaces (such as some military installations where the RF signal could cause problems). If you block their signal, you’re denying them what they’ve paid for (and gotten a license for from the FCC). Yes, it’s “only” the ability to sell their service and make money from their customers, but that’s the system we’ve got here.
I’m not excusing the rude behavior, just trying follow the First Commandment of Cecil and fight ignorance in my own small way.
I’ve been told that in Japan, the rules/licenses are different and there is much of this localized “blocking” that goes on - legally.
(Thus greatly reducing our national debt and helping balance the federal budget, BTW.)
I’ve seen something very similar. I was sitting on a tube train, and there was a man talking loudly into his mobile phone (it was on a surface stretch of the tube). Just as everyone was getting really sick of him, the phone started ringing. He went very quiet after that.
A fellow mod at customers suck has problems with cell phone users, as she works in a hospital, where cell phones MUST BE TURNED OFF AT ALL TIMES. Why? They interfer with the emergency equipment…but people always sneak them on.
Damn. I’m trying to find the article I read, it was a while ago, but can’t I believe they get around the law, because they aren’t jamming signals. It’s simply a material that happened to exist in the ceiling of one SF restraunt. They found that it blocked cell phones. Other restraunts started installing ceilings with the same material. As it isn’t a cell phone “blocker” but simply a construction material. I believe they can get away with it. Also, one restraunt, Moose’s, simply banned cell phone use at tables and bars. If you use one, you will be ejected from the restraunt. You are more than welcome to have it on vibrate, and leave the restraunt to take a call. That seems more than reasonable.
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