Cell Phone Etiquette

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

[AlphaSigOU]

Originally posted by OohTeenyWahine
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.

[SSS1365]

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!!!

[AlphaSigOU]

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!

[angelove]

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!

[Lil' Hannah]

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.

[SSS1365]

Originally posted by Lil' Hannah
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!

[aephi alum]

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. 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. )

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.

[Lil' Hannah]

Originally posted by SSS1365
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!

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.

[_Lisa_]

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.)

[Sister Havana]

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.)

[honeychile]

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!"

[Lady Pi Phi]

Originally posted by SSS1365
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!!!

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!?

[cuaphi]

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

[sororitygirl2]

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.