DISQUS

Tim · 3 years ago

Bravo!

I think the issue with cell phones isn't so much using them in a public place, per se, but answering them when you're with someone who should be getting your undivided attention. I don't see anything wrong with (say) whipping out your cell phone on the subway to talk to your spouse about what's for dinner. After all, people talk to their neighbor on the subway all the time. Why is it any more annoying when you can only hear half of the conversation?

Of course, in some places people are expected to be quiet, but that problem extends beyond cell phones. I don't know that I've ever encountered someone taking a call in the middle of a movie, but I been irritated by plenty of people having loud conversations with their neighbors during a movie.

And for the record, I don't have a crackberry, but I check my email on my laptop before I get out of bed in the morning.

naiserie · 3 years ago

I beg you, as a professional pedestrian roaming DC, that you never ever ever talk on your cellphone while you drive. I don't care how well you *think* you can handle both tasks at once. While studies provide conflicting evidence about exactly how hazardous it may be, minimizing distractions while driving, cellphone use, eating, or otherwise, should be encouraged. While your gargantuan brain no doubt enables you to walk and chew gum at the same time, you are unlikely to kill anyone in the process of doing so.

Sorry, but drivers in DC should be ticketed for using cellphones, eating, playing with the radio, or anything else that might distract them long enough to run me over while I cross the street.

Jim Harper · 3 years ago

Shut up and leave me alone. I've got better things to do than listen to you!

Erik · 3 years ago

Bravo, indeed!

Your point about the answering of cell phones and Crackberries in the midst of already in-progress discussions hits the nail on the head. I've had the same "is this really happening?" situation of being in a meeting with someone, only to have them take a call on their cell phone. The worst part is that the actual content of the call is almost always something utterly inane.

It's a bizarre world we live in, that we have to point out to people the rudeness of behavior like this.

jordan vance · 3 years ago

It's a good sentiment, But I don't think anything you've said here (as summmarized by your last two bullets) is anything that hasn't already been said elsewhere.

David McElroy · 3 years ago

While I agree with much of what you're saying, what is so wrong with taking a phone call in a place such as a restaurant IF you're not talking any louder than you would be to someone at the same table? I can't figure out the anger about that sort of situation. Yes, it's rude to interrupt people you're at the table with (in some case) to take a call. Yes, it's rude to talk louder than you otherwise would. But if you're alone and take a call, why is it rude to talk to someone on the phone in the same way you might talk to someone sitting at the table with you? I don't get that.

David

Martin · 3 years ago

Until recently I was co-owner of a restaurant with a no-phones policy. The reason was not so much the noise, although that could be a problem, but the way it changed the atmosphere. In a restaurant where some thought has been put into creating a pleasant place to dine (ie: no golden arches), there is a sort of collaborative effort between the waiting staff, the customers, and others, to produce an environment conducive to enjoying the food and the company. So when someone gets out a phone and starts interacting in a different environment, it ruins it for everyone around them. The only thing worse is someone getting too drunk or failing to restrain bad behaviour from their children (and I have 3 children so I'm not unsympathetic.)

And strangely enough it's a good measure of a person's general character to see just how they react to being asked to take calls outside. We had the procedure that we wouldn't interrupt the call, but we would ask the person very politely if in future they would take calls in the hall outside. Most people were understanding or apologetic. Very much all their neighbouring diners were very happy that this should happen. But about one person in three or four would become very upset, often losing their temper, at what they felt was an unwarranted intrusion into their private lives. Oh well, I always felt they could eat elsewhere in future given that we'd done our very best to be nice about it.

Jerry Brito · 3 years ago

From Political Wire: It's fairly obvious that Rep. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) will not be giving up his cell phone for Lent. According to Roll Call, while celebrating an Ash Wednesday ceremony at St. Peter's Catholic Church, the Congressman "spent a great deal of time on his BlackBerry during service and prayer, both reading emails and sending emails."

Said the informant: "I guess Rep. Jindal couldn't sacrifice his BlackBerry for God