7/15/2005 11:55:00 AM|||Sarah|||

Mike Adams wonderfully details thoughts that I share concerning the constant use of cell phones. These communication devices have become permanently glued to the ear of many people in our country.

I work on a college campus and try to get out for an afternoon walk every day. I estimate that about 75% of the students I pass are talking on cell phones. And, from the snippets of conversation I happen to overhear, they aren't saying anything important. As soon as they walk out of class, the cell phone comes out so that a discussion of what time to meet at a bar or whose professor sucks more can begin.

My most disturbing encounter took place in a campus bathroom. A girl was carrying on an extended conversation in the stall next to me about how her boyfriend was cheating on her with some ugly (expletive deleted). When I had the gall to flush the toilet, she yelled, "Do you mind?! I'm trying to have a conversation!"

I think the proliferation of cell phones in every environment (restaurants, movies, classrooms, etc) is evidence of a sad decline in social politeness and boundaries. I have a cell phone, but it is to use for emergency communication (OK, well ... usually it's for that purpose). It is not there to babysit me and provide me with a constant connection to technological stimulation that we seem to need these days.

|||112144785173637696|||Hang Up!7/23/2005 04:51:41 PM|||Katie|||Sara - How right you are about those cell phones. I was watching one of those "amazing video" shows on TV the other night and believe it or not they showed an armed robbery of a convenience store and the robber had a gun in one hand and a cell phone in the other!! Who in the world could he be talking to? His mother? His parole officer? It's driving me crazy trying to figure it out.