# Mobile phone madness!



## presto (Jun 17, 2011)

As the years go by I’m becoming more and more anti-mobile phone.
I see people getting addicted to them, driving while using them, being rude by ignoring people while they have them glued to their ears, I see people walking along totally oblivious to the world around them.
They’re often not switched off in concerts and at the theatre, and there’s nothing more irritating in hearing someone talking on one (usually loudly) while you’re out for a quiet meal. 
They just make life more complicated with all those tariffs and deals, and people are no happier or satisfied, they have a phone and just hanker for the next upgrade, a never ending money pit!
I’m so glad I've not been sucked into this stupid world, I have a second hand basic phone that I use about once every two weeks.
I've had my say!


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

I'm not certain but there might not be any reception here:










Thing is,..."uh, hello. Who? Oh, hey!!...",...sorry, I gotta take this call!


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## Igneous01 (Jan 27, 2011)

I share my sentiments with OP, its becoming very irritating to be surrounded by someone texting or talking on their phone everywhere I turn.

But I really dont understand those people who meet face to face, yet text to each other?! I guess talking is no longer cool or something?


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

I never had a phone but once upon a time I borrowed some because I had to met someone on train station in other city so I had to be in touch with the man. When I was in a train riding to that city I kept hearing that tune from Beverly Hills Cop, it was playing over and over again all the two hours of my ride to Warsaw. I was asking myself WHAT'S GOING ON, WHO PLAYS THAT DAMN TUNE? People in my partition looked like they were annoyed too. After I left the train my phone started to ring and I realised that it has Beverly Hills cop tune as it's ringtone and when it was playing in that train it was that phone in my pocket.

Since then I never longed for having mobile again.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

A cell phone is all I have, but I don't play with it like a toy. I don't have it attached to my body either. Cell phones or no, it's not getting any smarter out there!


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## graaf (Dec 12, 2009)

Few days ago, my mobile phone broke down, so I went to the company that gives you free phone if you sign 2 years deal with them. I went for least expensive subscription, got some basic phone for calls and messages, and 2 years warranty on it. That's how much I obsess about phones. What can I say, I'm not a modern man...


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

I own one ... but I never answer it when driving. If it's important enough, the caller will call back. The mobile phone is a necessity as I am seldom home during the week and it's the easiest way for people to get in touch with me. 

As for texting, I do, but never while driving ... cracks me up to see a 6 year old kid riding on a scooter, trying to steer with one hand and talk on the phone with the other, all the while trying to pedal with one foot while the other is on the scooter ... they usually fall within seconds ... hilarious ... well, somewhat hilarious ... one tends to get what one deserves ...


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I agree with presto. A phone is a phone, it is not your life as some people are beginning to think. It's just a tool, a means to an end, not an end in itself.

My worst bile is reserved for -

1) People who leave them on during concerts.
2) People who chat loudly about their intimate life on public transport. What they did in Brisbane or Melbourne I think is have phone-free train carriages, it's a bit like the old non-smoking sections of restaurants. Mobile phone conversations are seen as pollution now.
3) People who drive using them and cause accidents.



starthrower said:


> ...Cell phones or no, it's not getting any smarter out there!


Yep, we have all these fancy gadgets but our minds are still at the level of the apes. That's what I think when I'm in a very cynical mode anyway.

To extend to ipods, they kind of make people get in their own worlds on the street. Of course the old walkmans did this as well, but ipods seem to be much more widespread. Hard to have spontaneous conversation with people on the street now as one used to do more easily. Everyone is busy listening to music on their ipods, absorbed in their own world. So it is sort of antisocial for sure. & you go to a busy pub on Friday or Saturday night, and there's boom boom music blaring from the speakers, you have to literally shout to be heard by your friends. Is this sort of thing progress or regression???...


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Sid James said:


> My worst bile is reserved for -
> 
> 1) People who leave them on during concerts.
> 2) People who chat loudly about their intimate life on public transport. What they did in Brisbane or Melbourne I think is have phone-free train carriages, it's a bit like the old non-smoking sections of restaurants. Mobile phone conversations are seen as pollution now.
> 3) People who drive using them and cause accidents.


Can I add:

People who go out to coffee/lunch with you and then spend the time on their phone talking to others. What's wrong with "Hi, I'm with someone, I'll call you back"?

People who leave their phones on in my class AND THEN ANSWER THEM AND START CHATTING.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

mamascarlatti said:


> ...
> 
> People who leave their phones on in my class AND THEN ANSWER THEM AND START CHATTING.


That's actually been reported to have happened in concerts here. Some big wig corporate executives who think they own the entire orchestra - they probably do with their sponsorships, etc. - leave their phone on and then have the temerity to answer it. Obviously, it's on purpose. The total definition of arrogance if you asked me, & rudeness & heaps of other nasty things...


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

Sid James said:


> . . . Obviously, it's on purpose. The total definition of arrogance if you asked me, & rudeness & heaps of other nasty things...


Like people dining in a restaurant who receive a phone call and let it ring and ring and ring and ring, then look around the room as if to say "look at me, I have a mobile phone", then they answer it and everyone else hears their side of the conversation.

Whenever I go to a restaurant or in a public place, I always put my mobile on "stun" mode (vibrate). If I receive a call, it's indiscreet and nobody else knows.


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## presto (Jun 17, 2011)

I hope the tide it turning, I remember this when the notable actor (Richard Griffiths) was so annoyed when a phone went off, he stopped in mid flow, pinpointed the culprit and asked them to leave.
Good for him, there should be a zero tolerance.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4458810.stm


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Really, is the phone the only thing to blame? This very pc we sit in front of to come on here is just as evil...perhaps not as annoying, as it is done in our own homes...still, what we're really condemning here is the population of folks who use them to no end...even without such inventions, these folks would still find a ridiculous way to annoy you. Best result: live and let live (even if others living have a bullet in the head). As far as zero tolerance...I could think of a few other things that 'should' be under this category...most of us wouldn't even be here if such things were true.


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