There’s no getting away from cellphones these days, is
there? They are everywhere – ringing, vibrating, beeping, lighting up. Everyone
has one and some have two or three and all have to go wherever they go. We have
become so addicted and dependent on it that it has become our 24x7 companion.
We grab our phones even before getting out of bed in the morning and it’s the
last thing we check before going to sleep.
This little tool has become central to the way we live our
lives and our dependency on it only keeps growing. And really, no question that
it is a very useful and convenient gadget……………it has made keeping in touch, staying
informed and accomplishing everyday tasks super easy.
However, as always, there’s a flipside that’s totally
irksome – the absolute lack of cellphone etiquette by users. The proliferation
of mobile phones has given rise to a whole new set of ugly bad manners and
selfish social behaviour. Most people seem to be taking anywhere and everywhere
as their personal phone booth and yelling their private business for all to
hear.
Hearing the intimate details of a stranger’s ailment or
other personal matters in a public place has become commonplace. Hard as you
try, it’s impossible to tune out someone who’s literally shouting into a phone
nearby. You learn that his or her blood pressure has been acting up, mother-in-law has
come for a visit, the son has left for his medical studies and he/she had dried
Doyang fish and bas tenga for lunch.
We have all encountered irritating mobile phone behaviour
and are also perhaps guilty of it ourselves sometimes. Yellers, endless mobile chatters and texters, conversational show-offs – all these are irritants that have become
the order of the day.
And there’s not a place or an event where the ridiculous
ringtone of a cellphone is not heard, even when it is specifically requested
that they are turned off. Really, you need to keep your phone on in church? I’m
sure God isn’t impressed with your expensive gadget and other worshippers won’t
be either if it disturbs their prayers.
Some people seem to think that talking on their mobile
phones isolates them from the people around them. The longer, louder and deeper
that they get into their conversation, they seem to become more and more
oblivious of the disturbance they are causing to others.
On the other hand, some users seem to enjoy being in the
limelight. They want to look busy, important, and in charge and their loud public
conversations are filled with grand announcements and overstated tales and
references of wealth, success and so on.
Being trapped somewhere with a phone yakker and being forced
to listen to their loud conversations is one of the most uncomfortable and
annoying experiences.
Then there are those who are with you but not really with
you. Whether it’s a one on one visit or a social gathering, they are constantly
making or receiving calls and checking messages and updates on their phones. They
may be physically next to you but their mind is elsewhere with other people and
other interests.
There’s a word that describes this particularly irritating
habit of addicted cell phone users snubbing others in a social setting to fiddle
with their smartphones – phubbing. It is an extremely annoying habit to say the
least! Why do they even bother to be in the company of others if they’re not
going to actually be there with them? Better
for them to sit alone in their rooms and play with their phones.
Seriously, if you want to visit and spend some time with me
then put that damn phone away. I guarantee that the world will not stop
functioning if you shut your gadget up whilst in company. Just stop behaving
like you’d rather be somewhere else than with me. If that’s the case then
there’s no point in coming around, is there?
Believe you me, there was a time before mobile phones came
into existence and the world did not end just because you went a-visiting and
others’ couldn’t get touch with you for a couple of hours. And, by the way,
most of us are not so very important that we have to be on call twenty-four hours.
A more disturbing and dangerous habit is talking and texting
while driving. In Nagaland, you see drivers talking animatedly on their phones
in every other vehicle. This is, of course, illegal as per road rules, but with
no one there to check and enforce them, practically everyone drives around
happily chatting on their phones. If they do not care for their own safety,
that’s their choice, but the problem is that they endanger everyone else by
their distracted driving.
Technology keeps growing and growing and our phones keep
getting smarter by the day. Common logic says this should make its users
smarter. But no, it only seems to be making us more and more obnoxious and
irresponsible.
In any case, for better or worse, mobile phones are here to
stay. No matter what anybody feels or says, this little gadget is not going
anywhere. And I certainly agree that it is an awesome tool. But for the love of
all that is good and sane, let's learn some few rules of good phone manners and
stop being a pain in the a_ _ with uncouth mobile phone behaviour!