But, if you don’t get it, nothing will ever make you get it. You’re the ones we have the signs up for.

It is a kind of nuerotic behavior that may be impossible to resist possibly similar to other things we do to improve possibility of self preservation.

I believe it must be addictive and rewarding (with some sort of brain induced endorphine,) because even with multiple reminders I still hear cell phones ringing when I am at the movie theater.

If not… what’s the difference?”

Posted by: Tom at June 23, 2007 04:04 PM

I think one of the differences is that homo sapiens are probably hard-wired into thinking that people who (apparently) talk to themselves are nuts.

Even if we know better, the taboo remains. Sort of like eating certain insect larvae: we know they’re full of protein, but….ugh.

Same feeling I get when I see someone ostentatiously holding what I can easily imagine to be a one-way or even imaginatary conversation on a cell-phone.

So you’re saying if I’m not a “crazy man in a corner yelling into my hand” I am completely free to talk on my cell phone, right? If I don’t speak unnaturally loud, if I don’t go out of my way to interfere with other people (excepting, of course, the hyper-sensitives who decide to be appalled by everything), and if I speak in more or less the same tone and manner I would if someone were sitting beside me, it would be all right?

I didn’t think so.

It’s easy btw to see who has the interfering phones. Look for the brick with buttons.

What’s wrong with texting is the same thing that’s wrong with talking. There are only a few areas in the hospital I work for where we disallow cell phone use and it isn’t for noise reduction. Some of the phones operate on the same fequencies as some of the equipment we use to save lives. We can’t know who has the interfering phones, so we ask that no one use them.

and they more or less ignore the existence of the clerk at the checkout counter

I’m equally amazed when that same clerk will answer the phone and leave me, the customer that actually came to the store to, you know, buy something waiting while he deals with the person that can’t be bothered to leave their home. Pet peeve, that one is, but I admittedly collect pet peeves the way a widow collects cats.

One big difference is that the people around you can’t eavesdrop on both sides of the conversation, and it’s annoying to not know all the details of what is going on

If not… what’s the difference?

The main difference is that, talking to one’s friend, one would remain cognizant of the surroundings.

Talking on the phone, the rest of the world drops away and people speak much louder and use words they normally wouldn’t use in the surroundings. It’s the difference between a quiet conversation and the crazy man in the corner yelling into his hand.

and they more or less ignore the existence of the clerk at the checkout counter- like he’s some kind of ATM machine they don’t even acknowledge as a human being. It’s so incredibly rude, yet I see people my age doing it, too.

So, Jonathan is correct and you lot are the worst form of Luddites.

If not… what’s the difference?

I think of people isolating themselves with electronic distractions as a form of Autism. You have an iPod with Your Music (don’t ever have to listen to a song at random from the radio that might displease you in some small way), you isolate yourself with your earphones, you text your friends, you receive your emails, you TiVo your favorite programs, to watch when you want, you drive through the Rocky Mountains with your children in the back seat watching a DVD of The Little Mermaid, or playing with a GameBoy, instead of seeing the wonderous sights that nature provides. You never have to wait through something that is not Your Choice, Your Personal Environment.

There is a huge value in learning to deal with boredom, with whatever is at hand. Why not strike up a conversation with the person in the next seat? Why not look at a National Geographic in the doctor’s office and learn about cetaceans? When we started taking our kids on long road trips (as infants), they learned to look out the window, and watch America rolling by. When my younger, Plugged-In son wanted a DVD player in the new Suburban, and told him there is a great DVD playing out the window, and to live with it, or bring a book. He didn’t like it, but he’s much more interesting because of it.

We have signs in our office requiring cell phones to be off in the exam rooms. I have many patients to see and I don’t have time to include a patient’s cell phone conversation in my visit. It is simply not fair to the other patients. Most patients understand and respect that – we just have to have the signs for those who don’t get it.