Cell phone etiquette

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An article I saw on Sympatico's MSN site:
Cell phone etiquette

I live in a small city and don't ride commuting transport, such as ferries, buses or trains. I hear cells ringing occasionally at the mall or somesuch.

Other comments?

 

That's exactly what I was talking about in RCPB. Unfortunatly, the moron youngsters waving their stupid 3G, err, how should I call it... "media center" around seems to be too stupid to understand that simple concept.

 

I am not bothered by ringing cell phones in public places. But in places like theatres, meetings, etc everyone should have their cell phones off or on vibrate/silent.

 

When on mass transit the ringing of the cell phone doesn't particularly bother me but listening to someone sitting near me have a private conversation does. For some reason people using cell phones seem to think others can't hear their side of the conversation. Please when in public use it only for emergencies.

Absolutely yes!

It also annoys me in gatherings where we are supposed to be socializing and having fun together. A discussion or game is disrupted by a cell phone that someone just has to answer. At least make the conversation short, very short.

 

I agree. There are very few occasions when an annoyingly loud ring is necessary. If the phone is near you, you will feel the vibration or see the flashing light. If you miss that, oh well, they will leave a message.

And it is REALLY annoying when people shout into their phones as if the person on the other line was deaf. That happens all the time on the bus.

 

I tend to put my phone to full volume + speaker when in public. I can switch it to a more silent mode if I find the conversation requiring it. I don't really mind people speaking to their phones in public, it's no more annoying than people talking to each other.

Really, get somewhere else if people using their phones in public bothers you. Restaurants, movie theaters and such of course are an exception.

Proper mobile etiquette is to show the finger towards anyone complaining.

People complaining about cell phones in public went extinct a couple years ago here. Or learned to shut up when people are calling.

 

I used to turn my cell phone off during classes, but now I leave it on 24/7. I'll still leave the room if I get a call, but if Mom needs anything I'll deck the guy who gets in my way.

 

@Taza, on public transportation it is difficult if not impossible to get away from some using the cell phone. And as Harbourboy said they often speak in a loud tone so they can be heard by many people. Most people talking to each other on a bus or train speak quietly and have general conversations. I have heard some pretty intimate conversations on my 1 1/2 bus ride from were I live up to NYC. And the person on the phone gets annoyed if anyone around reacts to the conversation by look, laugh or comment.

It is rude to go to a social gathering and then spend your time there on the phone.

On the street I could care less. We are passers-by

Felinoid's use of the cell phone is a justifiable use. And if he gets a call regarding his mother I doubt he is going to spend and hour discussing it. He also said he leaves the room. Private conversations should be just that.

 

The etiquette regarding private conversations is to say an inappropriate comment, and then comment to the person "if you don't like it, quit yelling about your private things in public".

An etiquette should fall into place by itself once the culture adjusts more into cell phones - here we had those arguments four-six years ago.

But I prefer IRCing with my cell phone anyway, nice and silent.

 

No, it's much more annoying, because people know they don't need to shout at the person sitting next to them, but they do feel they need to shout at the person on the other end of the phone.

Charming.

 

Finally read the article, and I was unpleasantly surprised to find that it was nothing more than an editorial complaint. No suggestions besides the extremely vague "be more polite", and most of it was just ranting. What needs to be in articles like this (ALL of them), is the actual code of politeness; a checklist of the places where you should not have your phone on. Though in general terms I'd say it's any enclosed public place, I think there would be exceptions on both sides of that rule.

Public transportation certainly qualifies, and yet, at the same time, is also unreasonable for some. I have my own reasons for leaving my phone on all the time, and stock brokers (his "buy, sell" example) need to be reachable at all times as well, as a delay of a few seconds could mean significant losses. I'm sure there are many other examples, as the delay for public transportation can be quite huge when you get into long-distance. (I myself spend an hour each way in transit to school and back, and up to 15 minutes walking by virtue of it not delivering me to my front door.)

Should people whose jobs require them to be reachable at all times be prevented from riding public transportation? Would that not be discrimination? Now, I'm not saying that there doesn't need to be more mobile politeness, but the 'problem' is neither as bad as the author claims, nor as localized. Mobile rudeness (without reason) is merely a symptom of overall rudeness. Some people simply are not as polite as they ought to be.

@HB:
News flash: The bus is loud.

 

Don't give me that rubbish. How come two people on the bus can have a perfectly good conversation that I can't hear a word of, but when their phone rings, they have to start shouting? And I can assure you that the people who I overhear on the bus every day are not high powered stockbrokers doing mission critical deals, nor are they doing things for their relatives. It’s just people yelling about who, like, did what to whom, like, last night and what, oh my god, they are, like, so going to do, like, tonight.

 

I don't know about the person on the other end of the line, but clearly you're deaf.

Shouting? Yelling? Are they actually getting that far up there in the decimal range, or do you just become a busybody when you hear a cell phone ring? I know I can't help eavesdropping on a call for the first few seconds because the ring gets my attention (as it's designed to), but after that it drowns in the noise of regular conversations. But what's worse for you is that your pre-existing annoyance heightens your hearing the call, feeding into itself and causing you to call it shouting and yelling when it's just you focused in on a regular (for mass transit) conversation level. I can't imagine the frivolousness of the conversations you're hearing helps that any either.

EDIT:
And if they really are shouting and yelling, consider your location. Does NZ have a lot of cell towers? Do cell conversations drop out sometimes? The natural (though totally illogical in this case) response to someone not hearing what you said is to raise your voice. If it happens enough, it could become a habit.

 

I think you are over-complicating things. My experience every day on the bus is very simple:
1. People talk to each other and I can't hear what they are saying
2. After a high decibel jingly tone, they answer their phone and shout and I can hear every word
3. When I talk on the phone, I use a low voice and even my 2 year old can hear and understand what I am saying.

It's nothing to do with eavesdropping because if I wanted to eavesdrop I'd be better off eavesdropping on the two sided conversations that are already going on, rather than the one-sided ones on the phone.

 

People still show off their mobile phones even though everyone has at least one and having two isn't rare. Or even more.

I hate shouting. And I don't like showing off the tune before picking up on the bus.

 

And the proper response to the finger is to grab the cellphone away and toss it out the window. Preferably with the finger attached.

 

Congrats.

You DO realize that's far worse in behaviour than any calling?

I don't really turn off my cellphone often - heck, I've given tech advice from a fast food restaurant bathroom.

 

True, but it's on the same level as yelling into a phone and then flipping someone off who politely asks you to keep it down.

But then, many cell phone users don't seem to realize that.

 

Do people really *yell* into their cell phones around there?

I can understand talking loudly, but yelling?

 

Cell phones should be banned from public place usage. Not only are you breaking the rules of etiquette, but there is a chance you may injure an individual. Public areas include public road. I been hit now two times by individuals who were paying attention to their cell phones and not the road. As for other cell phone disturbances in public places it is annoying. I hate being in line and a cell phone ringing; to my surprise it is the person next to me and they have the nerve to answer the damn phone. I use my cell phone at home mostly and if I am out and about and my phone rings, I will excuse myself to answer the phone or I will let the phone vibrate and return the call later.

I work for a company that employs more than 10,000 employees and one thing that drives me nuts when I am in meetings is individuals who have beepers or cell phones that don't turn them onto vibrate.