Selling our souls to cell phones

We have done cell phone etiquette articles in the past but requests have been made to once again remind cell phone users of how to use the technology, as misuse is rampant.

No tips this time, no rules of etiquette, you be the judge. Is this type of behaviour sensible, courteous and safe? Judge yourself.{{more}}

During the Sunday service prayer time, a cell phone rang out and the cell phone owner answers the phone while the minister was praying. She then proceeded to get up and walk down the middle aisle with the phone to her ear talking. A few laughs in the hallway and she returns to her seat. Was that an emergency?

Imagine a long line in the bank and the person being waited on is holding up the line. The bank clerk is requesting documents and asking questions but only receives sporadic and often incorrect responses because the customer is too busy arguing with someone on the phone.

Meanwhile, the other customers in the line are becoming impatient with the customer who tries unsuccessfully to multitask.

Now picture the driver who is so important that he/she must place a call while driving, during rush hour, on the winding roads. Studies show that driving while speaking on a cell phone is a major distraction as the focus of the driver is not completely on the road even if they are wearing an earpiece.

Don’t forget that hospital machinery is adversely affected by cell phone signals, hence the sign requesting visitors and patients to only use their cell phone when not in close proximity to medical machinery. Walk into any medical facility and see how many people you encounter using their cell phones. Are they putting your loved one’s life at risk?

Pedestrians are no better; many people with cell phones cross the street while enjoying a good laugh or getting the latest gossip and completely ignore the oncoming vehicles. In fact, they even get annoyed when drivers don’t slow down. What’s more important, your life or the conversation?

Enter a room with a few busy business people and even when the facilitator reminds everyone to turn off or put phones on vibrate a few phones will still ring disturbing the speaker. Usually it’s not an ordinary ring tone its always something exotic, quirky or simply irritating.

Have our manners and common courtesy sunk so low that not even in the house of the Lord can we find peace and quiet from the annoying ring tones that fill our ears?