Writer's Block: Miss Manners

[fajrdrako]

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It's an oddly negative question. I hear a lot of people complain about public behaviour for one reason or another, but on the whole, I don't think people behave worse than they used to, or that new technology gives them the opportunity for new unplumbed depths of rudeness. It's just too easy to complain about other people. And I'm tired of hearing it.

That being said, I can answer the question: cell phones, by a long shot. There are the people who have loud, intimate conversations in public. The people who interrupt one conversation to pursue another. The people whose phones ring in cinemas and theatres. The people who talk on the phone while driving their cars - and I've heard the argument that they drive no worse than people having conversations with a passenger, but I don't believe that. I've seen how they drive.

Comments

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

The people who textmessage in cinemas, during the film - especially annoying if you're sitting in tiered seats in the row behind them. It may be silent but the light is distracting. Gah.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, that really is as bad as talking during the film. It's rude.

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

I too think that cell phones cause a lot more grief than they should -- for *all* the reasons you mention.

That said, a lot of people seem to be playing down the use of a cell-phone while driving. That's still a real problem ... and I'm looking forward to a law against it in Ontario. [It's already banned in Quebec and Newfoundland.]

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I too think that cell phones cause a lot more grief than they should

I think a lot of this is just getting used to new technology. Social customs relating to them haven't evolved yet. What's the alternative? Not banning them. Not making more laws and restrictions about when/where they can be used. Maybe if abuses happed that should be the case, but I think most people will work this out. There will always be a clueless fringe - the type of people who talk in theatres and drop their chewing gum on the sidewalk - but that's not the norm.

[torchwood334.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with Cellphones I really hate it when people text while driving which I been seeing alot.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's annoying too... And scary, when you have to share the road with them.