• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

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

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 April 2006, 15:00 CDT

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.

-----

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

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Tribune

More News in this Category