As a frequent reader of the Daily Free Press, I have often been tempted to write a response to an inflammatory article contained within its pages or an opinion about a problem on campus. However, each time I lost the desire to write?until today. My article to you is not focused on the ?evils? of the administration or the unfairness of the guest policy or even the violence in the Israel. Instead, I write about the growing lack of cell phone etiquette on campus. In the nearly two years I have been a student here at Boston University, the usage of cell phones has increased exponentially while the level of courtesy of cell phone users has dropped precipitously. However, I do not intend to say that in this age of rapidly developing communications systems that we simply abandon these ?miracles of technology,? (I myself own a cell phone and use it as my primary telephone) but rather set out some guidelines for public usage of cellular telephones.
1)Turn the phone off in class– This is the cardinal sin of cell phone use. I would have to say that a ringing cell phone in the middle of class is more annoying than someone coming into class 15 minutes late through the front door of the lecture hall, walking in front of the professor, moving slowly past people to the middle of a row and sitting directly in front of you. It is amusing that it still happens despite the threat of an entire classroom of 100 people turning in your direction and sneering at you, their eyes burning a hole in your forehead. It is also funny how people remember to turn of their phone before going to see a movie, but can?t remember to do it before class. If this one problem were to disappear, I would be a happy man.
2)Don?t shout into the phone– If the person can?t hear you, call them back later. I don?t want to listen to another person?s conversation anymore than I would want somebody listening to mine. And if its 5 minutes before class starts and/or its early in the morning, get off the phone and see rule number 1.
3)If the person on the phone is 50 feet away, talk to them face to face– Some of you may be laughing right now. ?Ha ha! That doesn?t happen!? you say. Wrong. It does and I?ve seen it twice and can?t decide which time was worse. Yesterday I was in Morse, and a girl sat down next to me on the phone. She ended the conversation and then turned to her friend and said that she hated her plan because it was too expensive and she didn?t get enough free minutes. Not two seconds after the words were out of her mouth, the phone rings and the conversation follows like this: ?Hello?oh Hi! Where are you (she looks around Morse) I can?t see you. Wave or something. OH! There you are! Hi! Come here! No, you come here! This class is so boring?Come here!? The conversation continued in this manner for at least 15 minutes before the girl, who just earlier was complaining about the lack of airtime and the high cost, finally stood up and walked the 50 feet to where her friend was. The second time, I was on the T and two kids were talking to each other from across the trolley. The person is right *there*! Talk to them!
I could continue on, but I will stop here. I hope that I haven?t offended anyone too much, yet somehow know that somebody is reading this right now in Stone B50, fuming mad, and screaming, ?The nerve of this guy! What does he know!?? into their cell phone.
John Dickey CAS ?04
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