genuinegirly

Originally posted it in my journal. Decided to make a post out of it.

Here's the place to vent about inappropriate cell phone use, what you've done about it, how you've responded to it, and what you believe we should do about it.

Today I was frustrated by a person chatting on their cell phone next to me in the library. I turned to her when she hung up and said, "Excuse me, do you have any idea how rude you were?"
She looked at me, shocked, "uhh, no."
"This is a library. You don't turn a cell phone on in a library, much less answer it and carry on a conversation about how you're in the library."
She stared. Finally, "You're kidding, right?"
I packed up my stuff. Stood up. Picked up her cell phone. Made a move to chuck it vehemently to the floor. Then threw it in her lab when she said, "HEY!"

Normally, I don't react this way. I'm usually just minorly frustrated. Less so if it sounds like one of those urgent conversations, for which cell phones were invented: loved one is dying in the hospital and you're waiting for news, or you have a sister who is giving birth sometime this week and you want to be there for it.

I blame my behavior on PMS.
What really shocked me, though, was that this fluently English-speaking, well-educated Californian had no idea that it wasn't appropriate to talk above a whisper in a library, much less chat on a cell phone.

__________________
"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq

"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy