Mobile phone etiquette in planes, trains, and automobiles
I am writing this (edit: started writing this) on my PDA as I ride a chartered bus to dinner and a Toledo Mudhens game at Fifth Third Field in Toledo, Ohio. I’m up here for a three-day conference with a bunch of other IT people from various organizations as well as many technology vendors, so I would bet that almost 100% of the people in attendance have at least one mobile phone on them.
What prompts me to write this is the man sitting in the seat across the aisle from me who is speaking very loudly into his phone about clients, meetings that he’s rescheduled for next week, and other assorted things which I guarantee are of no interest to anyone on the bus. And yet we must listen.
I flew to Florida last winter and was seated next to someone who called six people in the span of half an hour while we waited our turn in line for the runway. I know that he spent the night sleeping in and wandering around the airport, that there are exactly seven minutes between automated announcements about no smoking in the teminal, and that he had only one coffee and a donut to eat since last night. I had the luxury in that case to hear both sides of his calls as the volume on his phone was turned up so high that every word the other person spoke was clearly audible.
There is debate now about whether mobile phones should be allowed to be used on aircraft. Whether for technical, health, or safety reasons, I am pretty certain that there will be violence erupting on planes if the use of phones is permitted as passengers become irritated with inconsiderate people carrying on conversations for the duration of multi-hour flights. If you want to check your e-mail, browse the Web, or some other data-related thing that doesn’t disturb others, fine; heck, I do it all the time. When you are speaking, however, you are basically forcing everyone around you to listen to what you’re saying, and that’s a different situation.
Have some consideration for those around you, especially in an enclosed environment such as an airplane, bus, or train, where people can’t get away from you when you annoy them. You may think your phone call is important, but everyone around you probably doesn’t need to hear it. Very few people in this world are so important that they can’t wait until they’re off the plane or vehicle to talk on the phone in a more secluded location. And if you are that important, I feel sorry for you that you can’t get even a little bit of time away from work to sit quietly on a plane and read a book.