EDITORIAL: A Call for Some Manners: A Call for Some Manners

By The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

Apr. 5–Hello. Hello. Can you hear me now? Good. I’m in an elevator and you keep breaking up. If it happens again I’ll just shout — I said I’ll just . . . Oh, OK. The reason I called is this Pew survey about cell phones — cell phones! The elevator? I’d say pretty full. Anyway, you know how Americans are into self-this, self-that and self-the-other-thing? Self-esteem, self-actualization, self-improvement, self-empowerment. The one thing they’re not is self-aware. Self-aware! No, they don’t mind. Why would they? This is important.

So this survey says almost 90 percent of mobile phone users have encountered people who are rude, annoying or irritating — irritating! — on their mobile phones. Look, buddy, I’ll be off the phone in a second. Will this stupid elevator ever reach the lobby?

But only 8 percent of mobile phone users say that they themselves are sometimes rude. I’d say that’s a disconnect. Disconnect! Can you hear me now? Do you have a cheap phone?

The survey says that three-fourths have used their cell phones in an emergency, which I’ve got to do right now because things have turned a little ugly here. Talk to you later.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

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