2/24/2006
cell culture
I found Lauren Winner's thoughts on cell phones to be very provocative and even more applicable in Europe. I think I'm going to try to eliminate language from my vocabulary that equates time with money (spend, maximize, use, save, etc.). Maybe I'll give up my cell phone for lent (eek!).
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4 comments:
Another one that bugs me: "invest"
I would be very hesitant to give up my cell phone, especially because you almost need one to function socially anymore. I wouldn't develop my in-person relationships without calling them up to find out where we were going to meet or whatever. I think there are more moderate rules that seem reasonable though. Like not answering my phone when I'm talking to someone in person. And turning my phone off during meetings or when I'm sleeping or leaving it home when I go for a walk. Because it's not so much the cell phone that's the problem, it's that it gets a higher priority than the immediate people, places, moment.
Bethany's right, I bet. After all, most of us over here don't even have other phones. I, for one, need to give up my habit of wondering, while walking anywhere, if there is someone I need to call so that I can use my time more efficiently.
After reading Winner's comments about etiquette in her post I'm wondering - does anyone have thoughts about cell phone conversations on a bus? I ride the bus regularly (2-4 times per weekday) so I hear my share of loud one-sided conversations. (on a side note, why can't people realize the technology is good enough that you don't have to yell for you partner in conversation to hear you?) During the few months I had a cell phone after a certain brother moved to Budapest and left it behind for the plan to expire, I did find it necessary on occasion to touch base with my husband while on the bus. But I felt a rather irritating guilt about disturbing those around me. Interestingly, that guilt wore down with familiarity. So now, having been a listener, then a talker and now again a listener during my rides, I have yet to make up my mind about the appropriateness of cell behavior. I tend to lean toward benign tolerance if the call is a short one to set up a meeting or update a family member, but when a nearby rider goes on and on about the party last night or who's backstabbing whom at work, well, then it gets old quickly. I also think it sad that between phones and ipods I hardly ever have conversations on the bus anymore, and believe me, those conversations with strangers have always yielded something thought-provoking or humorous. For instance, earlier this week I spoke for a while with a senior citizen on her way to her third thrift store of the afternoon in her hunt for a new sweatshirt since no one had given one to her for Christmas, despite that being the only thing she asked for. I have never met anyone so inordinately picky about color, size, cut, etc. of a sweatshirt! She even described to me how she irons them. (I really wanted to ask her if she ironed her underwear, too, but I didn't have the guts to) Nothing in a book, no matter how good, could be as much fun as listening to her firm ideas of proper fashion and clothing care, her brisk annoyance that the strong wind had messed up her hair, and her tart commentary on the lives of her children, grandchildren, step-grandchildren and said step-grandchildrens' divorced parents. What joys the yakkers miss! How right Bethany was when she said that the problem is the priority of the cell phone over conversations with little old ladies whose view of the world is decided and whose undyed roots have been exposed by the breeze!
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