Cell Phones - a Necessary Evil

I really do know how important cell phones are, even if I don’t use mine. I have one and half of the time I leave it at home. Usually I use it for when I am driving out of state…other than that, I can live without it. But cell phones seem to be every where. I actually think there is an epidemic where the phone seems to have grown out of most people ears. That is my explanation. Cell phones are important in an emergency. But the cell phones seem more important to a number of people who need to own a cell phone and talk on it – 24/7.

I am tired of driving on the roads and seeing people on their cell phones, going slow or cutting off other drivers because they are not aware of what is going on around them, except for what is being said on their phones. They are the people who drive in a car and have to talk on the phone. Paying attention to driving is no longer important. Or they are the ones that I have stood behind in the grocery check out line where they cannot even be bothered to acknowledge the clerk. Or the ones that I have stood behind in Starbucks, who order their drinks in between the words of their sentences. Oh my…how hard would it be to say, “Hello,” ‘Please,” or “Thank you??” Pretty hard, I guess.

I used to work at a greenhouse, where women would come in, ask a question, and then continue to talk on their cell phones. They expect to be waited on, and have your full attention, as they talk away on their phone. I even go through this with my daughters, who talk on their phones while I am sitting next to them. Maybe the next time, I should just bring along my cell phone and call them up and we can talk that way…next to one another on our cells.

Recently I went out to dinner with a friend to a really nice restaurant in the North Hills area. A couple sat down next to us and before I knew it, the woman’s cell phone rang. Of course the ringer was on the highest volume possible. After she had her conversation, she hung up and started to text away. She and her spouse said about four sentences to one another and then that was it. What kind of people sit at a table at a restaurant and don’t talk to each other…you got it, married people.

So, why am I cranky…because people do not seem to have any knowledge of etiquette. People use their cell phones everywhere and never seem to stop talking. Everyone has to have a cell phone and that includes little kids as well. No wonder our kids have no idea how to carry a conversation, face to face, without the aid of a hand held device, called the cell phone. What if all our cell phones lost power? It would be a pretty quiet world.

The other day I had my oil changed at the Valvoline Oil Exchange…my eye fell on a sign that said, “If you are on your cell phone, we will wait on the next person in line, so that you can finish your conversation.”The sign made me smile and shake my head in agreement, as I put a nice green tip in the tip jar.