Remember
British noble-woman who said, re: sex, “I don’t care what two consenting adults do as long as they don’t do it in street and frighten horses”? She may have said “embarrass,” I can’t find quote. Either will do, as I proceed to apply this to cell phones.I agree they’re INDISPENSABLE. I’m uniquely qualified to say so because I was a doctor’s wife in 60’s. When he was on-call, he was chained to phone, and we couldn’t use it. Think I don’t appreciate call-waiting and cell phones? Think again.
They’re invaluable for SAFETY. I routinely drive from San Antonio to Dallas and at night, to avoid traffic. I consider traffic far more life-threatening than being stranded on side of IH-35 at midnight, THANKS TO cell phone.
They’re PRICELESS when you’re lost, running late, or have a teenager.
They allow doctors and therapists to have a life.
But there are some things we needn’t subject others to:
·If I wanted to hear why your brother is an asshole, I’d ask you. But that’s actually kind of toxic environment I try to avoid—other people’s hostility. ·If I wanted to be sexually aroused by explicit phone conversation, I’d be on DIAL-A-PORN. ·If I wanted to hear your personal angst, I’d be your therapist and charging you for phone call. ·If I wanted to be in bathroom with you…apparently 47% of Americans think it’s fine to talk on their cells “while in rest room,” and I assume this doesn’t mean while they’re shaving. I find this simply incomprehensible
These conversations are simply TMI.
Talking on cell phone can also ENDANGER THE LIVES OF OTHERS. A 2002 study suggests that drivers talking on their cells cause 6% of auto accidents each year, killing an estimated 2,600 people and injuring 330,000.
And you should listen up to this: companies are now being held LIABLE for employees who have accidents while driving and talking on cell phone. Maybe this will knock some sense into people.
There are currently 120,000,000 cell phone users in US, and 40 state governments are considering proposals to restrict or ban their use while driving.
We are quickly moving into realm of “frankly bizarre.” I had lunch yesterday next to a table of teenagers. The entire time two of them were on cell phones, and this made it too noisy for other two to talk to each other – real people right in front of them. Joanna Krotz says in “Cell Phone Etiquette ”: “Every executive has their can you beat this cell story? But Mary Westheimer of Bookzone.com offers one totally over top: At a recent Publishers Marketing Association conference, a panel member was presenting his part of event. ‘His cell phone rang and he stopped his presentation and answered his phone!’”
We don’t need an anthropologist (Robbie Blinkoff, principal anthropologist for Context-Based Research group) to tell us “people are defining new rules and new behavior for what’s personal and what’s private.”
