Cell Phone Etiquette

[Jerry Raia]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://laptopmag.com/Features/Cell-Phone-Etiquette.htm' target='_blank'>http://laptopmag.com/Features/Cell-Phone-Etiquette.htm</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Half a dozen tables at a Taco Bell are occupied with diners. Everyone in the restaurant instinctively jerks their heads toward their hips or bags as the low cacophony of conversation and the gentle lull of the muzak is shattered by the electronic chirping of a cell phone. A businessman typing away at his laptop is the winner of the cell lottery; he snatches the phone from his inside breast pocket and begins a conversation. For the next 15 minutes, he barks instructions to an underling loudly enough for everyone in the restaurant to hear."</i><br /><br />Yes there are times when you shouldn't be on your cell phone but do we really need laws and penalties for using them in "forbidden places"? The gym I go to has signs all over saying "no cell phones" but has 25 TV monitors hanging all over the ceiling and a TV monitor on almost every treadmill and stairmaster. Quite often a person is zoned out on a weight machine staring at the TV. If they are worried about distractions I think there is a bigger elephant in the room. My point is maybe social pressure will eventually dictate where a phone shouldn't be used. We have enough laws already to regulate behavior. What do you think?

[egads]

"Half a dozen tables at a Taco Bell are occupied with diners. Everyone in the restaurant instinctively jerks their heads toward their hips or bags as the low cacophony of conversation and the gentle lull of the muzak is shattered by the electronic chirping of a cell phone. A businessman typing away at his laptop is the winner of the cell lottery; he snatches the phone from his inside breast pocket and begins a conversation. For the next 15 minutes, he barks instructions to an underling loudly enough for everyone in the restaurant to hear."

Yes there are times when you shouldn't be on your cell phone but do we really need laws and penalties for using them in "forbidden places"? The gym I go to has signs all over saying "no cell phones" but has 25 TV monitors hanging all over the ceiling and a TV monitor on almost every treadmill and stairmaster. Quite often a person is zoned out on a weight machine staring at the TV. If they are worried about distractions I think there is a bigger elephant in the room. My point is maybe social pressure will eventually dictate where a phone shouldn't be used. We have enough laws already to regulate behavior. What do you think?

Yes, I think we do need laws. There will always butt heads out there who don't give a darn about manners. I was in a Metra train going into Chicago this weekend and a guy lit up a cigarette. I nicely showed him a no smoking sign and he told me to F OFF right in front of my 11 year old daughter. I told the conductor and he was kick off at the next stop. Having a law/rule gives ME a way to fight back. I wish these kinds of laws/rules were not needed, but there are too many people out there who have no manners or respect for other people out there... :?

[lurch]

The gym I go to has signs all over saying "no cell phones" but has 25 TV monitors hanging all over the ceiling and a TV monitor on almost every treadmill and stairmaster.

Side note: I think the reason for no cell phones in the gym isn't because of annoyances with talking, but rather the camera-phone-in-the-changing-room potential. :)

[Jerry Raia]

The gym I go to has signs all over saying "no cell phones" but has 25 TV monitors hanging all over the ceiling and a TV monitor on almost every treadmill and stairmaster.

Side note: I think the reason for no cell phones in the gym isn't because of annoyances with talking, but rather the camera-phone-in-the-changing-room potential. :)

Yeah thats what I thought at first but then I asked one of the guys who works there and he told me it was because people talk too loud into their phones and it was a distraction. I then pointed out several people in a stupor tying up machines staring at one of the many monitors and two people we could hear talking across the room. I asked him where the "no talking" signs were. I got a blank stare back. :roll:

[Damion Chaplin]

Well, I sure hope social pressure does it, but I sure ain't holding my breath.

That being said, I don't think a law is going to help any.

There are millions of morons every day that ignore the simple red-light-means-stop law.

As a pedestrian, people running red lights literally puts my life at risk. And that's a law that's been around for a very long time.

People yakking away on their cell is merely an annoyance in comparison.

We should get the police to start enforcing the simple traffic laws rather than waste their time writing a citation for inappropriate cell phone use.

Oh yeah, and don't get me started on the people who run red lights because they're on the cell phone!

[Ainvar]

I think there needs to be laws that are actually created to enforce the no talking on a cell phone rule in certain places that is not screwed up by the politician that makes it or gets it passed. That being said being on a bus traveling from d/t Atl to a park and ride in cobb county here in the metro atl area is a perfect example. Most of the people that have a cell phone thinks they need the ringer at the loudest ear shattering level they can take it to and then think that yelling into the phone so the person on the other end can hear them over the roar of the bus engine. There is nothing to help enforce the nice or rude manner to tell them to hey talk when you get off the bus where you are not annoying the people around you or screaming into their ear cause they are sitting near you on a packed bus and nowhere to move too.

This is why I think there should be rules, I am not even going to get on the subject of trying to have a nice dinner at a nice resturant and some idiots lets there phone ring for 30+ seconds cause he does not want to answer it cause he is eating. Also I guess it should not be brought up about the rude inconsiderate people who let their phones ring in a move theatre and then proceed to talk on it and the staff will not do anything about it.

The thing is most people here in a america are rude and inconsiderate, it is all about how they are raised and I know laws will not stop all of them but hopefully stop enough of them. Also since people can get away with speeding and small theft among many many other small laws that get broken everyday by people, it gives them the idea that if they can break these laws and not get caught what the chance of me ignorign others rules they dont like cause they probaly dont get enforced either. If cops would crack down on all the little laws like they do on rape, drugs, murders, and other capital crimes I bet some of the things we always bit** and moan about all the time will go away.

The running the red light statemment that was made is something I have to deal with on a daily basis since I work downtown. People again have no consideration.