The Hard Cell
Interesting article today in The New York Times (registration required) concerning cellphone etiquette. Not a new subject of course, but the first time I've seen mobile phones described as
As someone whose last mobile bill was the princely sum of £1.48 I feel I am uniquely qualified to tell you how to use yours. I got my phone when we were moving house last year - it did prove useful in that short period of torture and flagellation by estate agents and vendors. Since then, the only time I really feel like using it is when I'm in the supermarket and want to ask my wife whether we need toilet roll or something.
Ironically, it rarely works when I try to do this. I get no signal at all in Tesco, or it turns out my wife has her phone switched off.
People do sometimes leave the room when their phone rings, just as they would if they nipped out for a swift fag. Someone in our office sent an email round the other day asking if she could put her SIM card into someone else's phone in order to check her messages (her battery was flat). Yet another person sent an email asking if anyone could lend him a phone for a week while his was being repaired.
An addiction, indeed.
As the NY Times article indicates, there tend to be different schools of thought. Some people do think that the more calls they get/make, the more important they seem. They're wrong, of course, because the more calls they get/make the more disorganised and stupid they seem - just like the proverbial chain smoker will seem neurotic and pathetic rather than cool.
Really important people are impossible to get hold of, and lead mysterious and distant lives - like the girl/boy you loved when you were thirteen.
In my experience, to the true VIP, there is nothing so important that it won't wait till they are good and ready to deal with it. While everyone else is panicking and running about, the VIP will slip quietly out of a side door. Elvis has left the building.
So, dress like a rock star, that goes without saying. And use your phone like a rock star: they're for people in your entourage to use, and you can't be bothered.
...the cigarettes of this decade. It's an addiction. And just like cigarettes are banned from some places, so are cells banned. I think we'll see more organizations take a firmer line."
As someone whose last mobile bill was the princely sum of £1.48 I feel I am uniquely qualified to tell you how to use yours. I got my phone when we were moving house last year - it did prove useful in that short period of torture and flagellation by estate agents and vendors. Since then, the only time I really feel like using it is when I'm in the supermarket and want to ask my wife whether we need toilet roll or something.
Ironically, it rarely works when I try to do this. I get no signal at all in Tesco, or it turns out my wife has her phone switched off.
People do sometimes leave the room when their phone rings, just as they would if they nipped out for a swift fag. Someone in our office sent an email round the other day asking if she could put her SIM card into someone else's phone in order to check her messages (her battery was flat). Yet another person sent an email asking if anyone could lend him a phone for a week while his was being repaired.
An addiction, indeed.
As the NY Times article indicates, there tend to be different schools of thought. Some people do think that the more calls they get/make, the more important they seem. They're wrong, of course, because the more calls they get/make the more disorganised and stupid they seem - just like the proverbial chain smoker will seem neurotic and pathetic rather than cool.
Really important people are impossible to get hold of, and lead mysterious and distant lives - like the girl/boy you loved when you were thirteen.
In my experience, to the true VIP, there is nothing so important that it won't wait till they are good and ready to deal with it. While everyone else is panicking and running about, the VIP will slip quietly out of a side door. Elvis has left the building.
So, dress like a rock star, that goes without saying. And use your phone like a rock star: they're for people in your entourage to use, and you can't be bothered.
posted by Anonymous at
Thursday, July 07, 2005
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