| Cell Phones: Jamming Your Way to Silence | Today's Top Stories | ||||||||||||
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(Column) - Oh, this is cool! The Times recently ran a story on cell phone jammers and how silence seekers are abusing the questionable legality of such devices for personal gain. You see, a number of people are purchasing cheap cell phone jammers and taking them around town. If they hear an overly obnoxious caller, they sneakily press a button to drop the call. Hmm... I don't know. I can remember a few instances where I would've done the same and enjoyed seeing their reaction. On the contrary, though, you really have to wonder if I have the right to drop someone's call. And on what basis would I drop the call? Would the other person have to be loud? Reveal a little too much about themselves in public? Have an annoying accent? It gets tricky very quickly. Not to mention, what may not annoy me could very well annoy the person standing next to me in a long line. Is that fair to the caller? Let's just draw out a few etiquettes to make it easier for us to crystallize a fairly objective line. Bring On The Social Networking Mess To the cell phone talkers, unless it's ridiculously important, could you please not take the call in a relatively quiet environment (think high-end restaurants and movie theaters)? Even then, could you please keep your voice down and realize that you are in a public setting, in the middle of a potentially large crowd who's uninterested in hearing about your latest bedroom adventures? Seriously, people, are you that oblivious to what's going on around you? Stick to the main point, briefly interact and go somewhere private for important calls. I've heard people discuss important corporate strategies in a mall, while picking out a couple of dress shirts and ties. Yeah, keep revealing sensitive information like this, and you won't have much use for the shirts and ties you just bought. Just use common sense, and don't do something that would personally annoy you. That's generally a good gauge of how you are doing. That brings me to my happy-go-clicky cell phone jammers... Let's not go totally crazy and respect each other. Unless the person is absolutely annoying and you can sense that from others' reactions as well, stay away from the button. Even then, see if you could ask them to turn it down a notch before hitting that button and potentially dropping a truly important call from a considerate individual sitting far away from you. Obviously I think jammers have their place. If someone is rude enough not to respect others' space and must be disrupting, go right ahead and jam them (i just invented a verb.). Heck, go ahead and jam them twice, maybe even three times to make sure the call really gets dropped and they can't immediately reconnect. With that said, you, too, must use common sense and stick to basic courtesy. Don't overdo it. It goes without saying that cell phone jamming is a slippery slope, but if all us can follow the basic etiquette of making public cell phone calls, then the world could enjoy a little peace and quiet one minute at a time. And that's always a good thing. |
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