Blog 6

Yoon Saechow

Dawn Blunk

Transitional English

May 14, 2011

Blog 6: Cell Phones and Social Graces

            “Hey Dr., yes I got my test results back.  I know that infection has gotten pretty bad.”  Wow!  A little too much information, don’t you think?  This is just an example of how society has become unaware of their surroundings, because we have become a society with tunnel vision when we are talking on our cell phones.  We forget that we are in a public setting and we tend to shout our business to the world when we receive a phone call that just cannot wait until we are in the privacy of our home.  Charles Fisher explains in Cell Phones and Social Graces that cell phones may have some advantages, but our society has taken these qualities and abuse them; talking in a movie theater, while waiting in line, attending church, driving, etc. The disappearance of social interactions of the past has led Fisher to be unwilling to convert to a cell phone, because he believes we have developed a slavish dependency to the cell phone.  Over time cell phone users have become a nuisance to the public, and people are continuing to lose their grip on common courtesy.

Cell phone use has become such a problem in the public that we see “NO CELL PHONE USE” signs in Dr.’s offices, DMV, etc.  Instead of taking care of the business you are at a location to do, people rudely ignore the person helping them and continue with a conversation that is more important to them.  My girlfriend works at a pharmacy and she has customers come in and expect her to help them when they are constantly talking to someone on the phone.  She is supposed to ask several questions and confirm the purchase before releasing the medication, and when people tell her to, “Hold on, I’m on the phone,” it makes it very difficult for her to do her job.  Also in my previous job at Hollywood Video, I dealt with similar issues of people not willing to get off their cell phones when I was helping them on the register.  Trying to get their information to access their rental account became a battle of who can attain the persons’ attention.  These examples’ have a simple solution; don’t take phone calls when you are being helped.  Somehow society, or at least the people in it that are too focused on their cell phones have lost their ability to see where common civility would tell them to put the phone away.  People talking on their cell phones cannot even fathom how difficult they turn simple service transactions into; interrupting them becomes such a hassle and inconveniences the business.

The cell phone has become a conflict in society, because we choose to use it at the wrong times.  It is important to remember that we have to interact with each other every day, and that these conversations that we just have to have with each other use to wait until we got home to our LAN lines, because that was the only phone anybody owned.   Cell phones are continually becoming a nuisance to society, and more and more people are losing their grip on what is and is not considered common courtesy.  Nobody wants to hear your business when you are talking on your phone, and certainly nobody wants to have to compete with the person you are on the phone with.  Remember that even though no one can hear the person you are talking to, everyone can hear you, so if you would be so kind to use your cell phone on your own time!