Cell phone etiquette

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Indeed.

Cell phones should only be used at home.

Let's disable their mobility and make them just a more expensive version of a landline. What a grand idea.

You may not use a phone without a handsfree set here when driving.

 

I agree that people are un-polite when using their cellphones, but I also think that asking them nicely to either turn their phones off or to set them on vibrate doesn't work. Places like hospitals, theaters, and other places where cellphones do not belong need to install signal jammers.

I went to see Ice Age 2 the other week, and right before the movie started, a very forward, but polite voice boomed though the theater, asking people to turn off their cell phones. Regardless, I still head a cellphone ring during the movie, and saw the bright blue lights of the moron's phone.

Where's an EMP gun when you have some electronics that need to be fried?!?!?

 

Cell phone and other eletronic devices have their place in society, and it is a misfortune that people don't take others into consideration when in public. This why we have etiquette rules to begin with, but as technology is developed; the rules of etiquette do not really change.

Example: Before we all had cell phone, interupting someone who is speaking during a meeting or talking to someone else when at the register to make a purchase is rude and improper, and it appears that this same rule should apply to new technology like cell phone, but as we all experience or have read about that it is not the case.

To me this is the reason why society as a whole is turning in the wrong direction.

I for one recently purchased a book to improve my etiquette. I found this book to be more useful than any college class I have taken in my life time, and if a class in etiquette was offered at my university I would sign up for the class. I believe an etiquette course should be required for all degree programs, and than maybe we will all experience less frustration from individuals who violate the rules of etiquette.

 

Abdel - you should praised and encouraged for your aim of improving your ettiquette. I wish more people thought about this these days.

 

Cell phones have their place, but the issue isn't cell phones as much as it is people. People need to be more polite period, I have seen a great rise in rudeness in people over the years.

@Fel, reading your post about your mother and cell phones calls brought back a patients son to my mind. I had a little old lady that was dying of end stage heart failure, and the Doctor was having trouble getting a hold of her son, so he asked me to pass on the bad news, if the son ever showed up that night. Around 9:30 at night he strolls in and I started to talking with him and was telling him that she was dying and there was nothing that could be done about it. Right in the middle of my talk, his cell phone rings. Without even saying excuse me he picks it up and truns his back to me and startts talking on the phone. I couldn't believe it. Need I say more.

 

I'm a firm opposer of 'taught etiquette' in general. If a person doesn't know how to behave in a situation, one isn't going to learn by teaching. One's going to find that nail when he/she steps on it, not a second before.

In my opinion, more idiotic ideas than teaching etiquette have to be searched far and wide, and things on that caliber of stupid happen very, very rarely.

This thread is also veering slightly offtopic, from "how to handle annoying cellphone shouters" (which is a problem that'll solve itself with time as long as you don't pay much attention) to "proper etiquette".

 

There is no international code of good or bad manners, Taza. In some places in Northern Africa is polite to end you meal with a belch, which means that you enjoyed the food, whereas in Europe it's considered vulgar. In the UK and Ireland it's considered quite rude not to use "please" when asking someone to do something, whereas in Spain or Italy you don't need to. In some places in India, eating with your left hand, or greeting someone with your left hand is taboo because the left hand is also used to wipe your behind.

One is born with a measure of common sense (and some with none at all), but social conventions and etiquette are always taught, as they vary largely from place to place, or from culture to culture.

As such, telephone (and mobile telephone) manners are also taught. A person uses a phone in the way that person sees others using it, or in the way that person was taught by those close to him/her (even by just observing them). If a person is taught not to scream at the phone, that person will not do so unless under dire need. If the noise in the bus is too loud to maintain a normal voice level on the phone, the conversation should be ended. In this day and age, a text message can say as much, or be used to arrange another time to continue talking.

 

To paragraphs 1 and 2: I didn't say there was an international code of manners - believe me, that field is something I can handle far better than most can.

And the reason why I said the problem is self-correcting is that people will, over time, learn to actually use their phones properly. Talking in a movie theater can even be accomplished by your average user around here by now.
(It is still considerably discouraged, but it can be done without bothering other moviegoers.)

 

Perhaps I understood you wrong. Are you saying that using your phone quietly in the cinema is "using the phone correctly"? Do you really believe that someone can start talking on the phone, even if whispering, surrounded by other people who are trying to enjoy a film, without annoying them?

The use of mobile phones in theaters or cinemas is strictly forbidden in Spain and Ireland. A very clear message shows up right before the film, reminding mobile phone users to turn them off and that, depending on the place, they can be kicked out without a refund if they use them. Some theaters are even equipped with signal inhibitors, so that even if you don't turn off your phone, it will not let you call or be called until you are out.

 

I'm not saying it's proper etiquette. I'm saying it's possible to do within technology and people's knowledge of the technology.

It's still banned, and for a good reason.

I said your average user can do it, which means that if it wasn't forbidden, idiots would start ruining movies for others.

 

My thoughts exactly.

To quote DS9 (though it was meant in jest there), "Oh, how I long for a gun." For one thing, 9:30 at night is far too late to be visiting an ailing relative. When my mother was in the hospital, she was almost narcileptic at 6:00. For another, this punk treated you as a non-person (by not even excusing himself from the conversation) when you were trying to tell him vital information about someone he supposedly cared about. If I were you, I would have had to walk away and find someone else to tell him to keep from resorting to violence. In that situation, in his place, I would have taken out my cell phone, growled "NOT NOW!" into it, and turned it off. And even then you apologize for the interruption.

 

Not it can't. Whispering is possibly even more annoying that normal volume talking in cinema (because all you hear is a load of "s"s.)

 

The worst one was some business guy taking a call at the urinal. That freaked me out. I had to leave, quickly