{"id":4866,"date":"2002-08-06T15:34:11","date_gmt":"2002-08-06T20:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/?p=4866"},"modified":"2014-03-06T15:37:59","modified_gmt":"2014-03-06T20:37:59","slug":"hate-cell-phone-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/?p=4866","title":{"rendered":"I find your lack of cell phone etiquette… Disturbing."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"phone\"<\/a>by Robert Gillis
\nPublished in The Foxboro Reporter August 2002<\/i><\/p>\n

I need to vent.<\/p>\n

Can you hear me now?<\/p>\n

Good.<\/p>\n

Can you please hang up that silly phone?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Okay. I\u2019ll admit it, I hate cell phones.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong\u2014cell phones are a great invention. They keep kids in touch with parents. They make life much easier on many levels and prevent misunderstandings and keep people connected. They are great to have when your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere at 4am. Life is undeniable easier with them, and best of all, they give Jamie Lee Curtis something to do.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying cell phones are bad. I\u2019m saying they are intrusive, loud, often completely unnecessary and downright annoying. So I hate them.<\/p>\n

Do you really need one to check with home three times between aisles three and four? \u201cHoney, I\u2019m in the canned good aisle now, and the jumbo beans are 2 for a dollar, not 3 for a dollar. What should I do?\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s even more offensive is the people in restaurants taking calls while they\u2019re having dinner with someone else. The message is obvious: \u201cThis call is more important than my time with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

How about at the movies? Not only do some people not shut the ringer off, but also they answer the phone during the movie and carry on a conversation: \u201cHi, yeah, I can\u2019t talk, I\u2019m at the movies. Yeah. No, it\u2019s pretty good. Yeah. I can\u2019t talk now\u2026 Yeah, it\u2019s a good movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hang it up!<\/p>\n

And must the rest of us be privy to your conversation? A few weeks ago I was on the MBTA and found out that Steve is getting a divorce. I don\u2019t know Steve but the young lady on her cell phone was yammering on and on about what a jerk Steve was. Did I care? Nope. Was I forced to listen? Yep, for ten stops on the Red Line.<\/p>\n

Then there was the woman squeaking loudly and emotionally on her phone. The language may have been Romulan, or Klingon, but to me it was just loud.<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t even get me started about the people who take cell phone calls while they\u2019re otherwise occupied in the bathroom stall. That\u2019s just yucky. Remember we used to wonder why the phone always rang when we were in the bathtub? Well, at least we didn\u2019t bring the phone into the bathroom with us!<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just the people using them, it\u2019s the phones themselves. They\u2019re loud. Are you all deaf? Is there a reason the ringer is so loud that the Tweeter Center just called ands asked you to turn it down?<\/p>\n

And it would be nice if the \u201cringer\u201d were just a \u201cringer.\u201d But no, these cell phones screech like a banshee and play lengthy songs like \u201cYellow rose of Texas,\u201d compositions by Mozart and \u201ctake me out to the ballgame.\u201d And for some reason I have yet to fathom, people like to listen to the ringing tune over and over. They pick up the phone, determine who\u2019s calling (this usually takes 30 seconds) and they stare at the damned device while my eardrums implode and my blood pressure jumps. The nose is like chalk on a blackboard and I find myself twitching whenever they ring.<\/p>\n

Answer it, will you?<\/p>\n

Cell phone commercials advise you to exercise care when using a cell phone while driving. They ask, \u201cWill this call distract me from my most important task of driving this car?\u201d I\u2019d go further\u2014would taking this call bother other people? Would it annoy others? Can I speak quietly without sharing my business with other people? Can this call wait until I\u2019m out of the bathroom?<\/p>\n

Okay, so I\u2019m venting, but I know I\u2019m not alone in this. Bottom line\u2014cell phones are a wonderful invention that have improved our lives and communication in many ways and we would be lost without them. But please, exercise a little more considering for those around you when you use them.<\/p>\n

There, I feel better now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Robert Gillis Published in The Foxboro Reporter August 2002 I need to vent. Can you hear me now? Good. Can you please hang up that silly phone? Okay. I\u2019ll admit it, I hate cell phones. Don\u2019t get me wrong\u2014cell phones are a great invention. They keep kids in touch with parents. They make life […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events-commentary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}