cell phone use
Saw this article on Wired about how to shush people who are using the cell phone around them. Why are people annoyed by others using their cell phones while they're not annoyed by two or more people who are physically there and carrying on a conversation? The only thing I can think of is nosiness. We don't usually see people telling another group who are chatting to shut up, but the minute someone is on the cell phone talking to an unseened and unheard person, others(strangers) get offended. And accusations of bad etiquette and bad manners fly around. This reminds me of an incident I encountered on my way back from Hong Kong with my mom a few years back. We've just boarded an airplane and I was speaking with my mom in Chinese. A man next to me muttered under his breath that we should be speaking in English. I almost went off on him. Why is it any of his business if I want to have a conversation with my mom in our native language? We weren't talking about him. And I sure wasn't asking HIM to speak to us in Chinese. They're talking about cards that you can download from the internet to flash to cellphone users so they'd shut up, and sound proof booths in restaurants designed for cellphone users. Well, if you're going to have sound proof booths in a restaurant to curb noise, you might as well just put every single table inside a sound proof booth. I haven't heard of many silent dinning parties, nor is everyone in this planet know sign language.
People can be so twisted. This annoys me. And the next time a stranger tells me to stop using my cell phone or to speak in English, I sure will let them know what I think about that. Better yet, Luke suggested turning on the speaker phone.
People can be so twisted. This annoys me. And the next time a stranger tells me to stop using my cell phone or to speak in English, I sure will let them know what I think about that. Better yet, Luke suggested turning on the speaker phone.