Cell Phone Etiquette
 

I thought we might come up with a list of Cell phone rules.

I'll start.

1. If you are in a public place like a computer facility and others are working quietly. Kindly shut the fuck up and go outside to chat.

If you're at church, the library, or a funeral...HELLO! Please make sure your volume's not set so people in the next town can hear it! Turn it on silent or vibrate if need be!

People also shouldn't be talking on the phone while driving. Hands-free is ok, but nothing else. :rolleyes:

Not during morning after brunch....even if it's a mutual friend or really quick.

Not on the subway just before we're going back underground where you'll YELL "OK I may get cut off because we're going in the...Hello? HELLO??"

i love texting much more.

Don't talk on the cell phone while in a public restroom then act like I'm a fool by answering your questions.

I humbly dedicate this post to my mama, who has not yet completely caught up to 21st century technology:

NEVER TALK ON THE CELL PHONE SO LOUD THAT THE PERSON CALLING YOU COULD HEAR YOU WITHOUT THE CELL PHONE!!!!

I swear, the only time my mama embarrasses me....!

If you're in a restaurant and you have to call someone or take a call, step outside.

If you're at religious services, a wedding, a funeral, etc. for heaven's sake turn your cell phone off. It's disrespectful.

If you're driving, you should not be talking on your cell without a hands-free unit (unless you pull over or it's an emergency). In many states it's against the law, but more than that, it's unsafe to have one hand dialing your cell phone while the other one holds a venti mocha latte and you are driving at 80mph while steering with one knee. :rolleyes:

Not while you are getting a manicure/pedicure!!

I love my new spa cause you get one warning, and then you get kicked out. It disrupts the sereneity.

when your out with someone, friend or date, and your yapping on the phone. just rude!

That reminds me - my hair salon / day spa forbids cell phones for the same reason. The ring-tone-absence is much appreciated when you're trying to relax! :)

A friend of mine plays bridge competitively. She tells me that if your cell phone rings during a hand, you automatically lose the hand (I'm not sure exactly what that means, but it's evidently not good if you own the cell in question) and if you are a repeat offender you can be barred from competing in that venue again.

Who the heck do you call at six in the morning? :confused:

And if you are working out in a public gym, it just looks weird for me to see you are biking & trying to gasp the air into your lungs, while talking to your cell at the same time. Could you wait until you're done?

Cell Phone Etiquette -- One of the world's shortest books.

Leave the phone off of speaker phone when in a crowded place. A guy I work with actually leaves his phone on speaker so he doesn't have to hold it in the breakroom.

Don't talk about anything that should not be discussed publicly among strangers. If it's private, then go somewhere out of earshot. This may seem like common sense, but it's amazing how few people seem to exhibit this trait. I've heard about the cheating boyfriends, gyno visits, STDs, and love triangles of complete strangers while standing in line at Target. And after hearing them go on and on, I'd like for us to remain complete strangers.:rolleyes:

Oh an' another thing....
If you are in a public place (esp. restaurant, theatre, etc) don't sit there and tinker w/ your phone so that I hear every damn ringtone you have. This is especially for the high school age set. I want to rip the phone out of their grubby little hands and jump on it and smash it to bits!! :mad:

Don't talk on the phone while the cashier is trying to ring you up !!!!!!!!

Please please please don't talk on your cell phone WHILE PUMPING GAS!

The way today's cell phones are designed, there's little, if any chance that it could generate a spark that would ignite gasoline vapors. Most gas station fires are caused by people who fill gas cans improperly - always on the ground (not on a truck bed), nozzle in contact with the container.

Likewise, if you're already outside pumping gas, DO NOT reenter your car until you've finished pumping. The static electricity potential is such that you could set off a spark from the static discharge.

And it's a VERY good idea not to talk on the cell while pumping gas... always keep yourself focused on the task at hand when performing an operation that could kill or severely injure you if the instructions are ignored.

When you're at a wedding ceremony, SILENCE your phone!!! Don't ruin the couple's special day with your phone ringing in the middle of their vows!

When you're at a movie, first of all your phone should be silenced. But if it's not, and it rings during the movie, do not answer it and then proceed to carry on a LOUD conversation in the theatre while the rest of us are trying to watch the movie!!!

Occasionally, we at the Masonic lodge remind members to silence the ringers or turn off their cell phones during our stated meetings and initiation rituals. If it is absolutely important to keep your cell phone on, leave it on vibrate only. And take the call OUTSIDE the lodge room!

Annoying rings
 

It's one thing for a little "beep" to go off in a movie theater or restaurant - it's quite a different story when the surrounding patrons have to listen to electronic versions of Pachelbel's Canon or "Oops I Did It Again." You wouldn't start singing it at the top of your lungs in public, so why is it acceptable if it's coming from your phone? It's even worse when I have to hear it in the office over and over again because the person in the next office has stepped out without taking his cell phone. And don't give the excuse "But if I have a distinctive ring I can be sure that it's my phone that's ringing and not someone else's." HELLO??!! It's right next to you and you can't tell that it's your phone? Even from the deep dark abyss that is my purse, I can tell when my phone is making its unobtrusive little beep.

Pardon the early morning rant - not enough coffee yet ... one simple rule:

No novelty rings in public!

If you have a phone with a 2 way radio and you would rather carry on a 5 minute conversation over the radio rather than as a call, please, for the love of Pete, put it on "private." Others do not need to hear the other side of your conversation as well as that incessant beeping every 3 seconds.

Ohhhh yes! I can't understand the point of those things anyway. Seems to me it's a lot easier (and less annoying for everyone else) if you just make a regular phone call!

Also, if you're in a concert hall, for pity's sake turn off your cell phone!! If you are expecting an emergency call, set your phone to vibrate and step out if it rings, or tell the person who might be calling you to call the concert hall instead and have an usher fetch you.

A few months back, I was at Lincoln Center enjoying a concert when someone's cell phone rang mid-concerto. :mad: This was despite the slide projected before the performance, informing the audience that cell phones and pagers should be turned off. (I will not even comment on the number of people who seemed to think jeans and t-shirts were appropriate concert-going attire. :rolleyes: )

There was an ad (I think it ran last year?) set in an opera house, where someone's cell phone rang mid-aria (not to mention off-key to the aria), and the soprano picked up a spear and hurled it through the guy's cell. :D

When Nextel first came out with them, the two-way radios were only available to companies. At my old job we used to use them and it was a lot easier and quicker than making a phone call. Then they started selling them to the general public and every other teenager had one. Sometimes it can be easier to hit someone up on the radio, but if you need more than 4 exchanges, you need to make a phone call.

When you call a meeting only the hour before because its "urgent," don't waste my time by answering your phone in the middle of your "urgent" meeting & then get angry when I walk out to actually GET WORK DONE!


(Sorry for the anger-this one just happened to me this morning. The guy I'm speaking about has no idea what cell phone etiquette is.)

Don't even think about keeping your phone on during a movie, a play, or at religious services.

(During the High Holiday services last year we heard SEVERAL phones ringing!)

Turn your phone off when you're in class, too. (When I had a large astronomy class a few years back it was not uncommon for people to make and take calls in class. Unbelievably rude.)

Someone at my brother's church had his cell phone ring during the service. The pastor responded, "That better be the Lord, or you best leave the room right now!"

OMG this happened to me alst friday. The movie had just started and this girl's, who was sitting next to my friend and I, cell phone went off. If that wasn't irritating enough, she proceeded to answer it and have a very lud 5 minute conversation on it. WTH was her problem?!

Then half way through the movie athe punk ass teenager who was sittinon on the other side of us had his cell phone go off. He didn't answer it, but he didn't turn it off either. He cancelled the call but didn't turn off the phone. The person call back 5 times. He wouldn't shut the phone off!

WTF is wrong with some people!?

DO NOT talk on the phone while you are in the bathroom peeing. Tacky, tacky, tacky.

If you are on a date - turn it off. If you forget and it rings, send the person to voicemail without checking to see who it is.

And, if you must have your phone on and take a call when you are spending time with others (i.e. a date or a with friends), apologize, excuse yourself to take the call outside/in another room and make it quick. It is so rude to act like you would rather be talking to someone else than spending time with who you are with! (I'm not going to try to say I've never made this mistake, it took me awhile to learn when I was just a kiddo - but I have since changed my ways!)

Also, don't go through the phonebook numbers of a SO/friend's phone that is laying on the table - nosy!

And, don't call other people's phones ghetto or ancient just because they don't have the brand-new, camera, stealth-bomber model.

THANK YOU, aephi alum!!!!!!!!!! I was gonna post that if someone else hadn't. ;)

Lemme tell ya. I am a music major, and this is the one thing you can do to royally piss me off. I have been to peoples senior recitals when someone's PHONE WENT OFF. Maybe to a non-musician, you won't understand so much WHY this is so wrong. Well, I'll tell ya. When I'm on stage making music, I'm totally, completely focused on it and ONLY it--putting my all into the music I am creating. I am in a different state of mind, and there's nothing that breaks me from that then a DAMN CELL PHONE. :mad: And the audience is also in a different state of mind, listening to my music, getting emotions from it, and there goes a phone.

My Senior Recital is this March, and I'll tell you right now, if anyone's phone goes off, I will announce between numbers to turn it off. Not EVEN kidding.

Oh, and here's a good one. When my choir sang in Carnegie Hall during spring break, phones went off at least 5 times. We were beyond pissed.

Sorry for the rant! LOL BUt it's so rude to performers.

I hear ya! During a performance of "Arsenic and Old Lace," THREE different phones went off. All of us on the stage were sooo mad, but "the show must go on."

One local theatre has the following in their program:
"Please turn all cell phones, pagers, and children under the age of 5 to the mute setting."

When you are in a restaurant or bar about to order or waiting for the server/bartender to come over, DO NOT be on your phone! or atleast have some fraction of politness and hang up when the server/bartender walk up to you. I have gone up to tables before, and he/she was talking on the phone and didn't pause to aknowlege I was there, or set the phone down to order and, hell yeah, I turn around and walk off. When they hang up the damn phone I will go back to the table. I have other crap to do, I don't have time to stand at your table and wait 5 minutes while you talk about what your boyfriend did to piss you off today. Go to McDonalds if you don't want service.

Keep the volume of your cell OFF when you're passing time by playing a game on it.

little, but not no chance. it happened in New Paltz, New York two weeks ago. the guy was pumping his gas and answered his phone and a fireball erupted. the attendant pushed a button which released the foam that put the fire out. the guy was hurt a little but refused medical treatment. i saw them cleaning the gas station the next day---they had to redo the whole ground.

here's a link to the story:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/...in617547.shtml

Thats just punishment from God for being truly annoying :p