[Dean's World] Dean: Cell Phone Hangups

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Dean:
Cell Phone Hangups
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1175789367.shtml


   Via Instapundit, I spotted [1]this story on the FAA keeping its ban on
   cell phones on airplanes.

   On a technical level I find this a rather silly ban. But what struck
   me was not that, but rather the fact that people were complaining to
   the FAA because they hate people who use cell phones in public. They
   didn't want the restriction lifted, simply because they find cell
   phone use annoying. Quote from the story:

     These days it's impossible to get on a bus without at least one
     person hollering into their cell phone, invading the private space
     of everyone around them," one member of the public wrote in an
     e-mail to the FCC.

     "That's bad enough when one can get off in 10 minutes. To have to
     suffer through HOURS of such torture, with nowhere to go and
     miserably cramped conditions -- someone is going to explode."

   I've encountered this attitude before--this hostility to people using
   cell phones in public. I sort of understood it 10 or 15 years ago when
   cell phones were rare and expensive so maybe it seemed like people
   were flaunting their status by having one. But these days, the
   attitude strikes me as utterly ridiculous.

   Does anyone consider it rude when two people carry on a conversation
   in public? I don't know anyone who does. So why the heck do you care
   if someone's holding a phone conversation in public? I literally do
   not get it.

   Maybe it's my idea of manners but when I hear other people talking, on
   the phone or not, I generally go out of my way to tune it out and pay
   it no attention. How rude and selfish do you have to be to care if two
   people are talking in public, or if someone uses a telephone? What
   business is it of yours?

   Note: I am not a heavy cell phone user by any means. I probably use
   less than 30 minutes a month of cell phone time. This isn't even about
   my behavior. I am just stunned by other people who find this rude.
   What's it to you if someone's using a phone?

   I don't get it.

References

   1. http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/04/03/cell.phones.airplanes.ap/index.html