Cell Phone on the brain
Cell Phones are everywhere. It seems as if everyone has one, and sometimes two, and they can’t stop talking. Obsessed with being in contact with friends, loved ones, business contacts, the babysitter and telemarketers people are on the phone in line at the supermarket, getting gas, in theaters right till the opening credits, even while out with friends. People are talking to the “someone else’s” in their lives more than the one sitting right in front of them, and it’s driving me insane.
I’m probably not the first to say it but I’ll probably be the most vocal. What the hell is everyone thinking? Aside from the ranting and raving I could do about the love affair with the cell phone in general, cell phone etiquette or rather the lack of it, makes me almost lose it.
I watched a woman at a department store pick out her clothes, go into the dressing room, and proceed to the checkout all while on the phone. Watching her across the way, I could see the cashier went through the entire purchasing process while the woman was still on the phone. It was one of the rudest things I’ve seen being taken as common place. We’ve all seen rude people doing rude and crass things but usually someone takes note of it or calls them on it. Here, it was just one more customer in a long line of them for the cashier. No one else in line seemed to even notice because a couple of them were on phones themselves.
Do we really want to hear about Jason not asking Susan because he’d really sleeping with Cindy but he would do Katherine if only he’d break up with Steve? They don’t even try to talk in a hushed voice, walking around as if they were in a special sound proof bubble they talk about private, intimate, and confidential things without a second thought to the people around them. Corporate America want to know what your competition is doing, just listen to the conversations of their employees as they are grocery shopping.
If more people would think twice about whether it really is necessary to call anyone at anytime, or be gotten a hold of for that matter, is really important to their lives or businesses. Has the world really changed so much? I can’t believe anyone is claiming bankruptcy because they weren’t able to talk to someone on the phone at a particular instance.
Am I the only person who seems to care about how blatant this has all become? I wish I had a device that could scramble cell phone signals if they came within five feet of me. Not to do any great damage, but to protect me from their blatant disregard for my space. Step to close and your calls get dropped. Unfortunately, a device like that would be banned by the FCC; they protect the public’s right to be assholes on phones. Of course, you won’t find that in their official charter.
Like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, there are more and more people converted to the cause of the cell phone. One day I will look up and I’ll be the only one left who isn’t indoctrinated into believing it is my God given right to talk to anyone, at anytime, as loud as I like about whatever topic I damn well please. The day that happens, no one will take the time to read this column. And once they do discover this subversive anti-establishment writing, there will be a knock at my door soon after.
Sorry, gotta go there’s someone at the door.
