Cell Phone Etiquette: Part II

     This is an addition to a post I wrote nearly a year ago as recent events have caused me to rekindle this fire.  Yesterday a young lady asked me if she could use my phone as she had received an urgent message on her FaceBook.  I really don't like letting people use my phone, because of past experience with people abusing the privilege by carrying conversations for extended periods or dialing numbers in my phone book but it's been a long time since the last occurrence so I figured I would let her use it, plus she was cute.  Anyways, she proceeded to make her call and after a brief time she determined there was no emergency, all was well.  At this point, she should have concluded her conversation and returned my phone.  That didn't happen.  She began a new conversation over trivial matters and continued it for. . . wait for it. . . fifteen more minutes.  I would love to say, "that's not a big deal" and really it isn't in the grand scheme of things.  However, it is discourteous to assume that a person who has loaned you their phone, should stop what they are doing and wait for you to have a conversation that could take place later.  Not only that, there was no consideration as to what type of phone plan a person may have, so long conversations are ill-advised.  In this case, the phone I let her use had limited minutes, less than sixty, remaining.  I let her use it under the assumption she was in an emergency but it turned out to be nothing.  To add insult to injury, when she got off the phone she said, and I quote, "you didn't tell me what type of plan you had.  I hope I didn't use all of your minutes!" and then she walked away.  She effectively shifted the blame of her poor behavior onto me for not informing her of what kind of plan I had prior to her using my phone.  I was unaware that there was a rule stating you must tell a person what kind of phone plan you have before allowing someone to borrow your phone.

     In other cell phone news, I was in church this past Sunday and in my section alone, during services, I heard three phones ring, two directly behind me, and one a few rows further back.  I'm telling you people, if you can't leave your phone in your vehicle or at home for a few hours, you have an addiction.  An addiction will cause you to do things that you wouldn't normally do if you were in your right mind like bring a phone to church and allow it to ring while the pastor is sharing God's love with people that need it.  People need to take a look at their behavior, especially concerning the use of phones in public.  Everyday, I witness at least two people having loud conversations that are vulgar in content and should be kept private, if at all.  People should be aware of, and care about the image they are projecting when in public.

    I know I'm spitting in the wind with this one because today's society is extremely self-centered with little consideration for others.  I'll tell you this much, I'm getting close to letting go of my restraints and I may slap the color off of the next person who doesn't know how to conduct themselves in public and forces their boorish behavior on me!