You’ve probably wondered: how can some people who have cellphones behave as poorly as they do.
The only good part of it, you may be thinking, is that it can’t get worse.
It can.
I experienced the sign of a new era in cell phone behaviour in Buellton, CA at a chain motel last week. It was early in the morning. I went down to get breakfast in the breakfast room. It was nearly packed.
Suddenly, I heard a dial tone. Loud. People were talking quietly so it was hard to pinpoint who was doing the talking.
And then they left. There was only me, and a middle-aged guy dressed in a jacket and tie, who was sitting at his table eating a bagel.
The dial tone could be heard again. I saw him playing with his speakerphone. I had to listen as he dialed his call on his speakerphone. I had to listen to his conversation — all five minutes of it — as he talked (loudly) on his speakerphone. So as I sat, eating my waffle, I had to listen to Mr. Jerk dial his calls, get his calls, and listen to both sides of several conversations. Loudly.
I was tempted to say something, so I tried to be subtle. I looked at him. He was oblivious. I glared at him. He was oblivious. I told the motel employee: “This is really getting ridiculous!!” He was oblivious.
“Yeah. He is sorta loud, isn’t he?” she said.
He was oblivious.
I came close to telling him him that he was rude. I was going to say:
“Hey, you: why are you on a speakerphone, forcing me to have to listen to both sides of your conversation? Why don’t you talk on your cellphone like everyone else does, giving me the same consideration that cell phone users give others. Why don’t you take it off speakerphone, put the phone to your ear and then talk so loudly that they can hear your conversation in Utah.”
But I didn’t.
I finished, then left the motel, walked out on the street and sighed a sigh of relief as I finally entered the REAL world — where I saw a teen on a skateboard speeding down the street, talking loudly into his cell phone.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.