Comments on: Cell phone talker's arrest stirs etiquette debate

Public chatter on mobile phones is annoying--when other people use them. But how do we tackle the problem?

[tigerjuju]

Stop micro-manage people's lives

Enough is enough. Government has no business setting its foot in people's lives like this. It is not illegal to talk to other people in public place, why should people care if I am talking into a phone instead? Wouldn't that be the same noise, except I would argue that people (who are easily annoyed) should be happier since they only have to bear half of the conversation noise with cell phone. So what if it's not an important call that can be waited? If people next to me can have conversations with other people, why can't I have my conversation on the phone? What if some people find other people have conversation next to them is annoying? should we just ban any kind of talking in public all together?
Regardless, government has no business making regulations on something as small and stupid as this. Please use the government's time and effort, which the tax payers are paying for, on something much more meaningful and important than this.

[TimeBomb]

Ummm.....

Did you even read the article?

Nothing in it mentions proposed legislation or other government action to curb cell phone usage. The only hint of anything involving government was the mention of an arrest, but that was an isolated case.

The article mentions that it is generally more difficult to ignore one-way conversations. It also mentions that cell phones make it possible for people to talk to anyone, anywhere, and at any time, and that cell phone users therefore end up talking about inappropriate things at times. This is how cell phone usage differs from normal conversation.

Next time, try reading the article before commenting.

[zaz.net]

It can be illegal

It is illegal for you to commit assault, or to disturb the peace. It can also be illegal to use profane language in a given location or setting. It does not require a cell phone to accomplish, and the laws are not written to prohibit or control cell phone use.

It comes down to the greater good. If one person is getting the "good", and 20 others are having to suffer for the other persons enjoyment, then that is NOT the greater good.

It's about time

If this woman was legitimately cursing into her phone at a volume that other people could clearly hear, then the police were absolutely justified in stopping her. Obviously something aroused their attention, and I find it hard to believe that her volume was all that attracted their attention, as she claims.

Futhermore, a police officer doesn't tackle someone to simply detain them, but rather in a case of noncompliance. I would suspect that the woman was beligerant and escalated the situation when all she would have had to do to resolve it would be to quiet down and watch her language. While the first amendment protects free speech, it does not protect "lewd and obscene, profane, libelous and insulting or 'fighting' words" (Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 1942). I believe the police were justified in their actions and hope that the judicial system upholds their actions through a conviction of this woman.

[tigerjuju]

cursing is a crime?

Since when police should be arrested for cursing? If someone cursing to another person should not be arrested for it, why should someone cursing into a phone be arrestd? Now if the woman resisted to the police, the police has the right to arrest the woman. But if the police got on the woman just for cursing into a phone, I'd said the police should not have to right to start the whole episode.

Cell phone use has become absurd

I've had a cell phone for years, and it amazes me the places I see people using cell phones. It's irritating enough when people talk on them in stores, but restaurants, movie theaters, etc. are just unacceptable. If the call is important enough for you to need to take right then and there, at least have the courtesy to step outside and talk. But by far, the most ridiculous and irritating use 've ever seen is people who talk on cell phones IN BATHROOMS. I'm not talking "I think I'm having a heart attack and I need an ambulance now" type calls, I mean "I was at the mall today and bought the coolest little black dress" type calls.

Also mind-boggling to me are the people who leave their cell phones on during business meetings and job interviews. If you really need to be reachable at all times, like if your wife's going to go into labor, then put the damn thing on vibrate. And even then, if it does ring, DO NOT ANSWER IT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MEETING!! Again, step outside and take/return the call.

One last thing, what's with all the complete idiots who insist on driving and using their cell phones without the hands-free devices? I live in Jersey, where it's ILLEGAL (that means against the law!) to use a cell phone without a hands-free device. For everyone who doesn't know what that means, that means that you can't drive while holding the cell phone up to your ear. Yet I see dozens of people every day (and those are just the few I happen to notice!) yapping away with that damn phone glued to their ear. To those people, I say: buy a vowel.

Cell phone use has become absurd

I've had a cell phone for years, and it amazes me the places I see people using cell phones. It's irritating enough when people talk on them in stores, but restaurants, movie theaters, etc. are just unacceptable. If the call is important enough for you to need to take right then and there, at least have the courtesy to step outside and talk. But by far, the most ridiculous and irritating use 've ever seen is people who talk on cell phones IN BATHROOMS. I'm not talking "I think I'm having a heart attack and I need an ambulance now" type calls, I mean "I was at the mall today and bought the coolest little black dress" type calls.

Also mind-boggling to me are the people who leave their cell phones on during business meetings and job interviews. If you really need to be reachable at all times, like if your wife's going to go into labor, then put the damn thing on vibrate. And even then, if it does ring, DO NOT ANSWER IT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MEETING!! Again, step outside and take/return the call.

One last thing, what's with all the complete idiots who insist on driving and using their cell phones without the hands-free devices? I live in Jersey, where it's ILLEGAL (that means against the law!) to use a cell phone without a hands-free device. For everyone who doesn't know what that means, that means that you can't drive while holding the cell phone up to your ear. Yet I see dozens of people every day (and those are just the few I happen to notice!) yapping away with that damn phone glued to their ear. To those people, I say: buy a vowel.

[tigerjuju]

It's not the hand, it's the conversation

Research shows that it's not the hand that's hold the phone is distracting drivers, it is the conversation this is the real distraction. I think you can find a good number of people who don't usually drive with both hands. I can't see how using the free hand to hold a phone (or whatever else) would make a difference.

That being said, I don't think government should regulate cell phone use in the car unless they are ready to also out-law people making conversations with other passengers in the car.

[wouter werner]

Irritated why?

I think we are irritated by somebody making a phonecall not because of that person speaking (too) loud but because we only hear half the conversation.

When people near us talk to each other we listen in and mentally join that conversation, even will form an opinion on people and subject concerned. But politely we look the other way, pretending not to hear.

But when we can only hear half of a conversation we feel excluded and in a very basic reaction tend to be irritated, to loose our temper.
Wouter Werner

[nothingavailable]

Irritated DUH!!!!

Trying not to listening to some moron drone on about the hot date he had, is typically not possible when the inconsiderate prick is sitting beside us talking loudly because his, like all cell service sucks. I have no interest in mentally joining his conversation, I have much more fun mentally taking the cell phone away and jamming it up his nether regions. Do not attempt to psycho babble excuses for inconsiderate jerks to intrude on everyone around them with their retarded one sided conversations. I guess you have never tried to carry on a conversation with a real person sitting next to you when 2 or 3 cell devotees are blabbering away to their insignificant other loser friends. Give me a break from Cell phone losers.