Maya’s Own

I remember laughing while watching Star Trek when Captain Kirk would speak into what looked like a wrist watch and say the famous words:” Beam me up Scotty”
Things have improved from the early mobile phones in the nineties when they were the size of a brick and weighed as much. Now I see people of all ages walking down the road seemingly talking to themselves, one arm bend holding their ever smaller cell phone to their ear.

If people want to talk and walk I have no issue, I get a little steamed up if in the middle of a conversation with someone their phone rings and they proceed to talk at length. I never hang around and just walk off, it would be common courtesy when in a conversation to ignore the phone or if it is important to make it brief, after all it usually is not urgent. Most people would be happy to ring back or leave a message. Is there any etiquette specific to mobile phones? What are good manners when it comes to using a mobile to talk or text?
Maybe we just have lost all notions of courtesy being so wrapped up in being electronically connected. Recently a cafe owner complained of the number of people walking in, holding up the queue whilst talking on the phone, what is it with people, can’t get coffee without telling someone about it? Maybe they just want to look important and busy: “Look at me, look at me, I talk on the phone, I am a shmuck, but I am important!”

Please turn off your phone while in a theater, a restaurant or at the movies!

Leaving a mobile on to ring while at a performance or in a restaurant is the height of bad manners, you not only will spoil it for your companion [s] but also for everyone else, it is definitely uncool. The right thing to do is to show good manners and switch off the phone or alternatively put it on vibrate, if you must answer it, excuse yourself and step outside.

Do not talk on the phone while driving

Unless you have blue tooth or a hands free device, driving while talking on a mobile phone is totally stupid, you have one hand holding the phone and you are driving at speed, you will be distracted. This is illegal in most countries, and so it should be.
This of course goes also for texting while driving
I recently was on the city bus when i could not help but overhear a phone conversation, a young woman was telling her friend about her antics of the night before, it was very entertaining, it should have been Xrated but all the bus passengers got a good earful and a good chuckle. What shocked me the most is that she was totally oblivious to the effect her phone conversation was having, when she got off the bus many people commented on her conversationin a very unflattering way. Nobody told her to keep her voice down, this would not do and I suppose most thought that maybe she wanted us all to hear it!
The young woman may have thought she was so cool.
We have become so dependent on our mobile phones, I know a few people who just panic when they misplace their phone, all the phone numbers and addresses are in there as well as a lot of other information.
I have slowly been weaning myself off, no mobile on the week end and I switch it on silent most of the time unless I expect a call.
Phones are becoming smaller and have so many more applications, there is always the push to get the latest and most expensive device, why?
I traveled in Vietnam and mobile phones were everywhere there too, I even saw an older lady in the traditional peasant dress carrying a long bamboo pole and her two baskets of vegetables, when out of nowhere i heard a Xmas jingle [Rudolf the reindeer], she pulled her mobile out from under her vegetables and started talking.