by I was speaking with an (older) acquiantance last night and he was complaining about people who get in their car and immediately get on their cell phone (or “mobile”, for most of those outside the US). Which reminded me of how lazy and spoiled we’ve gotten. Do you remember when we had corded phones in our houses? Then someone came up with the bright idea of a cordless phone, so you could carry it around with you and not be limited by the cord. Then someone made them even more convenient by allowing us to use a headset with one little wire running to the cordless, so we could put the cordless on our belt/in our pocket and have our hands free to do something else. But, that wasn’t good enough. Then we needed Bluetooth so we could have a *wireless* headset to our *cordless* phone.
I remember when I was younger that when you saw someone walking down the street talking to themselves you could assume they needed their medication checked. If someone was looking at you and talking, you could assume they were talking to you, and it was polite to say “Excuse me” if you didn’t hear them. Now, you can’t make any assumptions. They could need their medication checked, they could be talking to you, or they could be talking on their cell phone. Oh, I guess you can generally make one assumption… if they aren’t talking to you (whether you know it or not), if you say “Excuse me” the response will most likely not be polite.
Oh, and one last comment on cell phone diatribes… when you have to interact with another person (such as a cashier, teller, or whatever), *TURN OFF YOUR PHONE* and interact politely with them. They are people also and deserve a modicum of respect.