Wednesday, January 31st, 2007:
Cell Phones and Etiquette:
Cell phones are a part of daily life. You can't walk anywhere in public without seeing at least one person on their cell phone. But when do you draw the line between an appropriate and inappropriate time to have a phone call?
Today, my beef with cell phones came with timing. I was going to one of my classes on campus today, and the class that has the room before my class wasn't out, so kids were sitting in the very quiet hallway area. There was a girl sitting against the wall having a very loud, very unnecessary conversation, making sure everyone could hear it. I was okay with it for awhile, but eventually she started telling the story of her life to this person, and I became a little irritated. I don't know you and I don't want to hear your life story before I know your name. It's one thing when the locale is busy and noisy, but when its completely quiet, do you have no shame?
The second is considerably worse. Now I admit I'm not fond of public transportation. I'm a germophobe, OCD, and sheltered to boot. I don't do well sitting next to a homeless person who rides the bus all day asking people for money, nor do I do well sitting shoulder to shoulder with people hacking and wheezing, but even though the bus drivers ask you not to do it, a guy decided to have a loud conversation with his frat brother on the phone the entire 20 minutes I was on the bus.
This leads me to my final point regarding this: In Japan, you are not allowed to use a cell phone or a pager on a bus or the shinkansen, according to my Japanese teachers. These manners from East-Asian countries like Japan really make me wonder when in time this "free-for all, do what we want" American mentality came from. Maybe I'll move to Japan, at least then I'll know that I can ride the bus without hearing how much poon this frat boy got.