Cell phone etiquette

This is a photo of a gentleman who was seated at the head table at a function I attended yesterday. Guess what he is doing?

Yes, believe it or not, he was having a conversation on his cell phone!

I continue to be amazed at the way we use cell phones. For some reason, it is imperative that a cell phone is answered. No matter where the cell phone rings – workshops, meetings, weddings, funerals - it MUST be answered! My children will mindlessly ignore the ringing of the home phone, but will track me down wherever I am in the house or garden to insist that I answer my cell phone - NOW! It is so funny to observe people - answering just to say “Call you back”; ducking beneath tables and under tablecloths; cupping hands over the phone while talking in a mumbled whisper - that is quite loud. Don’t we know that voicemail exists? Don’t we know that the missed call shows up on the screen? When I ignore my cell phone, someone will invariably say to me in near panic “Aren’t you going to answer your phone”? And when I indicate not, they stare at me as if I am mad! On occasion, I have said to people “You don’t have to answer the phone you know” and have received the most dumbfounded looks – as if I was suggesting that God doesn’t exist, or the world isn’t round, or some such fundamental underpinning of humanity.

Then there are Blackberrys. I was amused to sit beside a woman at a classical music concert on Sunday who was checking and sending e-mail throughout. As was one of the performers, as he sat in the choral pew! And I can’t believe that people are at Carnival in Trinidad, in the middle of Panorama (steelband competition, which is just rapturous), posting to their Facebook account via Blackberry “Enjoying Panorama, think band #8 should win”!

Cell phones have driven us insane. So caught up in the technology are we that we are not even aware of how we are behaving. I have seen some crazy people in the supermarket talking to themselves – loudly – until I realised that they were using the Bluetooth technology. Speaking of loudly – notice how loud we speak on the cell phone? Does it occur to us that everyone around us is hearing our conversation? Or are we thinking that because we are speaking into the speaker, then only the person on the other end can hear?

Of course, I am guilty of all of the above. But the gentleman yesterday, who believe it or not was representing a Minister of Government at the function, made me stop and think about how I use my cell phone. I hope you do too. The next time your cell phone rings – think before you answer.