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Reading the "How Rude" thread there were several mentions of customers rudely talking on their cell phones while checking out of stores or having goods loaded into their vehicles. I am so frustrated at the misuse of cell phones that I may lose all control and slap one out of a rude user's hand. Evidently teen-aged girls use cell phones as a measure of their popularity - if they have endless people to talk to then they must be popular. I can't tell you how angry I get when trying to negotiate a parking lot full of idiots who can't put their phones down long enough to pull in/out of their spaces. Nothing ruins a nice dinner more than someone who can neither turn off their phone or excuse themselves from the table to talk. Grocery shopping is being privvy to endless conversations by endless numbers of shoppers walking the aisles yammering away. And I could go on forever... The kicker is that about 98% or more of these conversations are just chatter, never about anything important. When did it become socially acceptable to share the minutia of one's life with every being within earshot???
I'm totally with you on this one. I have a cell phone...buried in my diaper bag. I don't use it. Really. There it sits, somewhere, waiting for an emergency. I don't much like talking on the phone, even less in public.
I don't need everyone to know my business. I don't like being forced to know theirs.
When someone is loudly conversing in an enclosed area, or just too close to my husband, he will actually join in the conversation, pretending to think they were talking to him. If they were foolish enough to call him rude...heh. They don't. They "get it" but they just don't care.
I do not understand why it is necessary to to talk on the phone while driving. I do not understand why it is necessary to talk on the cell phone at the dinner table, while standing in line at the checkout...or shopping. In the movie theatre. In the elevator. Or in the bathroom.
It's not like these calls have anything to do with the task at hand...
I have heard the argument that it is necessary to conduct business, contact babysitters, make arrangements. I'm not buying that argument. How did we do it before this invention, or in the early days when the size made it inconvenient to carry around? Yep - I remember the first ones.
To address the 'need', why can't these folks SIT DOWN for a minute or PULL OVER if it is so damned important to get the message through? Instead the non-cellular are constantly navigating yakkers to avoid being bumped, cut off, annoyed by those who can't multi-task but insist on trying.
The gadget that really makes me want to grab it from someone's hand and throw it against a wall:
The BEEP BEEP Nextel walkie-talkies.
BTW, those of you that use those incredibly noisy toys - you can shut the BEEP BEEP off. And you should. There is a control command to silence it. Please utilize this function.
Well, be glad that some businesses do use Nextels or cellphones. Before them we had two-ways in all of our trucks, pain in the rear. They are NEEDED in business and if they were not used it could really sink a business. When you have a customer that calls and has to have something and you can not get ahold of someone that may be in their area, it can make or break ya. But it depends on the business too. Now with the Nextels actually ON our employees if they are making a delivery and there is something that comes up the customer usually wants to know RIGHT THEN. They don't want to wait till that driver gets thru w/ all of his other stops (what if it was the first of the day) to get back to the office to find out and then call them back and play phone tag. With the Nextels they can call straight to the person that would know w/in the business and get the answer right then. Then everyone is happy. Customer is happy they got taken care of promptly, driver did not have to wait to get ahold of someone, etc. It really is more complicated than it seems. So before the days of Nextels and such we had two-ways and cb's to communicate so they were around in some way to help businesses.
The ones really starting to abuse them though are teens and *******s. I could not believe how many kids at my childs school got cellphones for Christmas. HELLO!!!! YOUR in the 6th grade. I KNOW WHERE YOU ARE!!!!!!! Or I better know.
OMG...WHY do people talk on their cell phones in restaurants? First of all, it seems incredibly rude to whoever they are dining with. Second of all, I guess these folks must think they are actually talking into a tin can, because they insist on talking VERY LOUD into their cell phone. I can't stand it.
Cell phones are so overly used, it's ridiculous. Last night a friend and I were trying to have dinner in Savannah and lo and behold, the people beside us need to talk on their cells. About what? Nothing. Absolutely nothing; just chit chatting. So incredibly rude and obnoxious and self-centered! Turn 'em off folks! If your lives are SO important, maybe you should still be at your office but not next to me in a restaurant.
I am not often encountering someone who is having a conversation that pertains to a delivery, since this is usually in a grocery store, a mall, the sidewalk or that woman and her sister who would otherwise be applying mascara in her rear-view mirror - BEEP BEEP "Heeey, (dude), whatcha doin'?" or BEEP BEEP "I was at (insert store) and now I'm at (insert store)"...if those on the road are conducting business, they still need to concentrate on the road and the four wheels rolling and not that phone. Get plug-ins instead of fumbling with hand-held.
Too many distract themselves with the gadget - anything that takes your eyes away from the thing you should actually be watching is a bad idea, convenient or not.
What state was it that tried to make talking on cells while driving illegal? Heard something about that but then nothing more.
I cannot tell you how many times a day, While I am Trying to wait on a customer that they are just yaking away and ignoring the fact that you are waiting to wait on them... I have gotten to the point that once they decide to hang up the phone then I will decide i can wait on them. This might be just as rude but it is justified. I work in a VERY BUSY office and do not have time to wait for the abusers to get off the dang phone. (what ever it is can wait)
Thanks for the ears and listening to me vent LOL
D
Cell phones like most modern gadgets have their "pros" and "cons".
Pros (things I use a cell phone for)
Great for people that work in places outside of a traditional office building. Sales people, law enforcement, truckers, anyone that is on the move as part of their job. Just don't drive and talk on the phone at the same time.
A lifesaver in a medical emergency or in case of an accident.
A safety lifeline if a car breaks down or if you need help away from home.
Cons:
Previous comments listed most of the annoying things about cell phones.
They turn some people into robots that are at the command of their electronic leash all day long to talk, text, I-tunes etc.
If these robots get behind the wheel of a car, watch out, they can kill somebody.
At the place where I work, if somebody is caught driving while using a cell phone or any other electronic device (blackberry etc) they can be fired. That includes "hands free" cell phones too. We all sign the company policy on this and they are very serious about it.
Manners are manners and if it were a landline you were speaking to someone on in a public place and talking privately with strangers waiting in line behind you, you'd be conscious of being rude. Yet when it's a cell phone, people disregard the ettiquette.
Today I was at Borders Bookstore. A man was talking loudly and walking quickly through the aisles and my first thought was..."This noisy loud man is a whacko crazo who's talking to himself!" Then I noticed he had one of those earpiece phones that fits the ear and is hands-free. I thought it was incredibly rude. He imposed his assinine conversation on everyone around him and didn't realize he was as loud as he was I think, or...didn't care. I'd love to have some kind of pen-sized zapper and point it at such people's phones, zap it, fry the innards, then watch their faces scrunch up in puzzlement. That would give me evil satisfaction
I also notice that people on cell phones in their cars rarely use traffic signals and just make abrupt lane changes and don't pay any attention. It pisses me off.
Last edited by MoMark; 01-29-2007 at 08:10 PM..
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And walk away. 
Cell Phone Abuse
