Cell Phone Ettiquette

Cell phones in America have now become a large part of daily life, and are still growing in popularity and functionality. It is absolutely ridiculous to consider putting put a ban on them in public places such as movie theaters, restaurants and grocery stores. First of all, there would be absolutely no way of enforcing this ban, at least not without causing great inconvenience to the patrons. Also, there are many circumstances where having the use of a cell phone is vital, whether it be a business emergency or finding out whether or not your son has a ride home from baseball. Finally, if there was a ban on cell phones, then essentially the law would only be making rudeness a crime, and how can a law decide what is rude and what is not.

So it’s Friday night, and you’re going out to eat at the fanciest restaurant in town, and when you arrive, a large man greets you at the door to pat you down, not to check for weapons or drugs, but for a cell phone. I know if I were taking my girlfriend out to an expensive dinner, I know I would get extremely frustrated if I were frisked on my way in. It would make me feel as if I were taking her to a ten dollar concert at the Webster Theater in Hartford, rather than a nice dinner and a movie. There is no real way to check to make sure that everyone in the restaurant has left their phones in the car, unless you have someone check everyone who walks in. Not only would this inconvenience the patrons, but the business would have to hire new employees to frisk everyone who enters, which just adds another expense to the business. You may say one alternative would be to tell people or have signs that tell people to turn their phones on vibrate or turn them off. This, however, is already in place at many movie theaters, yet obnoxious cell phone ring tones still go off in the middle of movies and the same people who talk during movies pick up their phones and talk then too. Overall, there is no convenient way to prevent people from having cell phones in these public places, and therefore this ban could not be enforced even if it were passed.

Cell phones are one of the most widely used means of communications due to the fact that information can be transferred instantly, anywhere, at anytime. Many businesses rely on cell phones to convey anything from big successes to major problems that could affect the company. For instance, what if the head computer technician was on a lunch break and one of the computer servers crashed at a major business. Normally, the company could either call him, send him a text message, or possibly an email that he could receive on his cell phone. The restaurant he is in, however, enforces the ban on cell phones so he had left his in the car. He now can’t receive the news of the down server until after lunch, which could cost the company large amounts of money. Cell phones also provide us with important information about the whereabouts of our friends and family. Many mothers worry about their kids whereabouts, and cell phones help them keep in touch. What happens when a mom is grocery shopping, and her son’s car breaks down on the way to mall, and the mom never gets the call because she was forced to leave her phone in the car? Her son now has to wait until the mom gets back into her car where she left her phone, and is stranded on the side of a highway somewhere. These are just a couple of the many times where a ban on cell phones would prevent important information from being received.

Since when has rudeness become a crime? If this were true, then about 90% of the North-East’s population would be getting fined. I don’t