# Why exactly does public cell phone use offend people? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 3, 2008, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508 "2008-12-03T15:08:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508/81 "2008-12-05T14:08:39Z")
> [@Hi\_Neighbor](#): > > If you’re just sitting by yourself in a waiting room, I don’t see the problem, as long as you can control the volume of your voice. They cannot or will not control their volume. And it’s not equivalent to talking to other people in the waiting room. Patients generally do not have looong conversations about minutiae with other patients. The effect of the cellphone usage is to create extra annoyance for people who are already stressed. I’ve given up on the idea that dedicated cellphone fanatics can ever be trained to control their excesses. I still have hopes for my proposed law mandating that people who use their speakerphones in non-appropriate situations (i.e. anywhere but construction sites and such) will be heavily fined and placed in the stocks. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508/82 "2008-12-05T15:06:08Z")
For me, in general it’s the loss of situational awareness that the Cell Phone Drone (CPD) exhibits, walking around in a world of their own, completely unaware/uncaring of what’s going on around them… it doesn’t matter whether they’re on their handset, using their Cyberman-esque Bluetooth “EarPod” or using their handsfree setup, their mind is elswhere and it’s everybody else’s problem that they’re running on autopilot wrap said CPD in a few thousand pounds of metal, glass, plastic and rubber, travelling at unsafe velocities and the lack of Situational Awareness can take on catastrophic, perhaps deadly consequences the other thing that bugs me is the air of “I’M MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU!” that many CPD’s exhibit when they’re on their evil little telecom gadget What I wouldn’t give for a portable, easily pocketable, handheld EMP device, tuned to fry the electronics of cell phones… And yes, I do have a cell phone myself (two, if you count the OnStar hardware in my car), a Motorola Razr V3xx, but I have no EarPod for it (don’t want to be Upgraded…) and the last time I used it to make a call was easily at least 2 months ago, and the call was less than 2 minutes long, it gets more use playing Tetris than anything… ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508/83 "2008-12-05T15:51:25Z")
One feature I miss from my old cell phone (a Samsung Slider phone) was the ability to REJECT calls, when the thing rings, one of the options on the display was a REJECT option, that dumped the call directly to Voice Mail I only wish that the phone had a Global Reject option, basically a list of phone numbers I _WILL_ accept calls from, everything else gets dumped to Voice Mail Sadly, the Razr does not have a Reject feature, so I have to let it ring (vibrate, actually, the ringer is turned off 90% of the time) and time out, I LOVED that Reject feature, Ogdammit! there are only four people that have my cell phone number, my parents, and two of my old college friends, if the phone rings, and it’s not one of those numbers, I don’t answer, if I don’t know you, I don’t want to talk to you, go away If a call _does_ get dumped to VM, they hit Layer Two of my phone call repellant feature, my VM message is purposely “scary”, designed to intimidate people into hanging up unless it’s something frakking _important_ Basically, it’s me saying in a low, flat, guttural, “this had better be FRAKKING important!!” evil-sounding growl “you know the routine, leave a message!” …for some reason, 95% of my VM messages are hang-ups, I love it when a plan comes together! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508/84 "2008-12-05T16:29:33Z")
To quote Doper **Eve** as she confronted a screaming-into-the-cellphone type on the NYC subway: Well, if you can’t be _less_ noisy, could you at least be _more_ interesting? ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508/85 "2008-12-05T16:51:47Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > Speaking of distracted drivers and cellphones, [Here’s an interested little test.](http://www.dft.gov.uk/drivingchallenge/) Not only did I fail the test (with 25 or so years of driving experience), but I was irritated throughout at too much going on and feeling overwhelmed. I also noticed that I got some of the questions, but I didn’t notice the road around me AT ALL. I cheated, I ignored the woman yammering away about her meaningless tripe, and concentrated on driving, I counted all the coloured shirts and noticed the person in the rabbit costume long before it waved at me I missed maybe one pedestrian count, but missed all eight meaningless questions, as they were irrelavent to the task at hand, _DRIVING_ ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508/86 "2008-12-05T19:10:07Z")
> [@MacTech](#): > > I cheated, I ignored the woman yammering away about her meaningless tripe, and concentrated on driving, I counted all the coloured shirts and noticed the person in the rabbit costume long before it waved at me > > I missed maybe one pedestrian count, but missed all eight meaningless questions, as they were irrelavent to the task at hand, _DRIVING_ That’s absolutely the point of the game (I paid attention to the call and missed all the driving, including completely missing seeing the guy in the rabbit suit waving at me). There is NO ONE on this board or in real life who can do two things at once - you might think you are, but what you are doing is paying attention to one thing, then paying attention to the other thing. Sucks to be (generic) you and everyone around you if you happen to be paying attention to your cellphone call when the truck to your left just ran the red light (or you’re the driver of the truck who isn’t paying attention to the red light because of your phone conversation). For those of you who might enjoy this, Maxim magazine called the Bluetooth headset a “Bluedouche,” and that’s what it’s been in my head ever since. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508/87 "2008-12-06T03:13:43Z")
Approximately 2000 (CE); I pull up at a Wendy’s drive through. The car in front of me is sitting at the speaker. The woman is talking on her cell phone. The person on the speaker is repeatedly asking them if they’re ready to order. The stupid cunt is ignoring him to continue her phone conversation. In short order, there are several cars behind me. I stop, listen to the person inside ask her several times more to either pull ahead or order. Then I step out of my car and scream; Hang up the goddamned cell phone and order your food before I shove that thing up your ass. She hung up and ordered her food. I would have preferred to see her peel out and flee in terror. Approximately 2005: I’m on [Harney Peak](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harney_Peak), which is in a wilderness area. It’s a beautiful day, but there are too damned many people on the mountain. Fortunately, they’re all around the fire tower (shown in the picture there). I go out along the ridge to about where this picture was taken from, to get away from them all. Cuntstain McMotherfucker sees me, comes strolling out to where I am all alone, whips out his cell phone, sits down **five feet from me** and SCREAMS into the thing. GUESS WHERE I AM! It was all I could do not to brain him with a rock. I had to leave. Ruined the entire experience for me. ---
**Author:** ![1010011010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/ea666f/32.png) [@1010011010](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1010011010)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508/88 "2008-12-06T03:40:48Z")
In the spirit of GQ… We see a fellow primate reacting to stimulus we can’t see. I think it triggers some deep seated predator avoidance behaviour. Did her eyes just go wide because there’s a lion behind me? Oh, no, she’s just some ditsy bint on a mobile. Or it plays with all our concepts of social hierarchy. People act and emote differently when dealing with strangers. When you’re on the phone you’re mentally amongst familiar people and are not behaving in an expectedly neutral way with the other people actually in your presence. So people see you making some significant expression and it puts them off trying to figure out what it means until they realize you’re yammering at the useless shower of bastards you call friends. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508/89 "2008-12-06T04:41:21Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Then I step out of my car and scream; > > Hang up the goddamned cell phone and order your food before I shove that thing up your ass. > > She hung up and ordered her food. I would have preferred to see her peel out and flee in terror. Where were you [when I needed you](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=155370)? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508/90 "2008-12-06T05:38:43Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > There seem to be more and more people who are incapable of being alone with their own thoughts. This is far closer to the truth than I’m comfortable with. You ever read something and it leaves you stunned because you can’t relate? At all? Last school year some 9th graders from I forget which state were assigned an essay. The topic was “Things I like to do when I’m by myself.” (we got fewer inappropriate papers than you’d expect) The responses were disturbing and surreal, because the majority of them said things like “The only time I can think of that I’ve ever been alone is when my parents went out to dinner one time…” and worse yet, they thought that single time they were alone was _scary_ and it made them lonely. They didn’t like the experience of being alone, and could barely cope on their own for an hour or two! High schoolers! Aren’t high schoolers supposed to avoid their folks whenever possible? If these kids are not a total anomaly, society is headed strange places and cell phone conversations will be the least of it. Anyway, like just about everyone else, I think it’s rude because it allows people the perfect venue for showing off how self-centered they are. Go ahead, be loud, hold up lines, endanger people as you continue your conversation while driving and clumsily executing turns out of the parking lot, nearly colliding with people trying to enter. Go ahead, you’re entitled, after all - you paid your phone bill, so why not? ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508/91 "2008-12-06T07:24:01Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > They didn’t like the experience of being alone, and could barely cope on their own for an hour or two! High schoolers! I just started teaching high school and have noticed that some kids really do become quite anxious when you make them turn their phones off. Feeling “out of contact” for any length of time causes them palpable distress. I’m doing my best to introduce them to their own brains, but I must admit to being a bit shocked at what we are (inevitably?) becoming. ---
**Author:** ![CAT\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@CAT\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CAT_1)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508/92 "2008-12-06T07:39:53Z")
It has pretty much all been said. I don’t like them much for just about all the reasons cited here. I wonder how many posters have cell phones, that they carry all the time. We don’t. Hubby and I each have a prepaid cheap trac phone charged up and ready to go, in our cars, but we rarely use them. I never even give out the numbers, nor could I tell you my number right now to save my soul. Every day while driving I see some idiot doing something dangerous our just maddening while using a cell phone. Yesterday a guy in front of me at a light decided to start dialing a number and go 2 miles an hour through the green light, causing the rest of us to get stuck behind him when it turned red. He made it through of course. grrrrrr I had an appoinment to make, and my 5 year old in the back seat. I almost taught him a few new words! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508/93 "2008-12-07T03:09:16Z")
Jim and I were talking about this just today - we were speculating that the people posting that they talk on the phone whenever and wherever and don’t care what anyone thinks about it are: A. Young, and B. Always the person doing the talking, never the person who is experiencing someone talking around them. With regards to A., as a young person, they may have experienced what you’re talking about, **Elfkin** , that they are not at all experienced with being alone or being alone with their thoughts or having expectations of shopping malls, grocery stores, libraries, etc. being basically quiet places. As for B., if you are constantly on your phone, I don’t suppose you really notice _other_ people being annoying on their phones. ---
**Author:** ![Lillith\_Fair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@Lillith\_Fair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lillith_Fair)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508/94 "2008-12-07T03:28:18Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > My doctor (and every doctor’s office I’ve ever been to) won’t allow cell use for a couple of reasons. > > First, it can invade the privacy of other patients. The phone may pick up a conversation between staff about another patient, and the person on the other end of the line may learn all sorts of interesting information. > > Second, it’s just plain obnoxious. Time is money and if I’m jabbering into my phone, that’s less time the nurse and/or doctor has to spend with me. It’s also rude. > > Robin Recently I was at my doctor’s office, in the examining room, for some minor thing. The doctor comes in and while we are talking his cell phone rings. He answers it and talks awhile, apparently to a friend to set up a play date at the park or pool or something like that. And the dumb part is I just sit there and I don’t complain about this ridiculous situation. This is just one event in the disintegration of my relationship with my primary care phsyician. I’m just waiting because we might move and I don’t want to change doctors twice. ---
**Author:** ![Qwakkeddup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/90ced4/32.png) [@Qwakkeddup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwakkeddup)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508/95 "2008-12-07T16:37:24Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > This is a big part of it for me. The number of people in the world who seem to think that a ringing phone is the equivalent of a ticking bomb has increased astronomically with the widespread use of cell phones. It’s just a phone call, idiot. If it’s important, they’ll leave a message. If you don’t have voice mail, they’ll try to call back again and again and again. Deal with the real people around you. I generally travel with my cellphone off. I have voice mail, but my wife will hang up and try again and again. Usually I won’t get a message until I get back to the house. Too late to pick up that Whopper w/cheese she is craving. If she would call, leave a message, hang up. I would leave my phone on, it will give me a beep every few minutes to let me know there is a message and I can pull over or get done with a transaction, and check it out in private. ((I hate **all** phones)) You can imagine the trouble I get into when my phone is off, but that is less irritating than being seen as the idiot in the above post. My wife often runs out of minutes, and I swear my best friend would answer his cellphone while having sex. Please, don’t tell me to use the vibrate function either. I tried it and driving 5 miles to a place I can pull over with that going off is almost as bad as trying to talk and drive at the same time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-exactly-does-public-cell-phone-use-offend-people/475508.md?page=4)