Practicing Good Mobile Phone Etiquette

Now that technology has provided us with a means to stay in touch with our family and friends from virtually any populated area on the planet, certain rules or etiquette are being blatantly ignored.  Let’s reverse this trend.

Most people who own mobile phones are not keen on the idea of turning off their phones or leaving them behind in any circumstance.  Business professionals, in both blue collar and white collar specialties, carry mobile phones.  Elderly people know how to text, chat, surf, and speak wirelessly to their grand kids, who also carry mobile phones to school with them.  Rich people carry phones.  Poor people carry phones.  The President of the USA is going to start carrying a mobile phone.  Smart people carry phones.  Dumb people… well, you get the point!  Everybody’s got one!

The problem is that many of these people fail to analyze the situation they're in and wind up in an awkward moment where they are being very obnoxious to the people around them.  For example, movie theaters and libraries are not ideal places for ringing phone noises and elaborate ring tones.  That’s extremely rude and disruptive.  Most mobile phones have a silent or vibrate option standard. Make it a habit to either switch your phone to silent before you enter one of these areas, or just leave your phone silenced all the time and get used to living with it that way.  Also, the microphones on mobile phones are fairly efficient.  If you think you have to yell at your phone for the person on the other end to hear, you should not have answered.

Another problem area is in the retail environment on both sides of the sales counter.  I have witnessed sales associates who have spent the entire time it takes to complete my transaction talking on the phone.  I have waited through countless conversations as the people ahead of me in line focus 5% of their attention towards the transaction at hand and 95% towards hearing some juicy gossip. Make it a personal rule to hang up your mobile phones while participating in any transaction.  People will appreciate it.

Not everyone is a great driver.  Plaster a mobile phone to the side of their head and their skill level drastically reduces.  If you can avoid talking on the phone while driving, please do so.  If you absolutely cannot miss the call, at least use a hands-free device.  Whatever you do, do not EVER text and drive  That’s incredibly stupid and it's illegal!!