Cell Phone Etiquette

This month I have heard the same cell phone go off twice in church, waited impatiently behind a woman in the checkout line finish her conversation when she was supposed to be paying, had someone on a cell phone swerve into the lane I was driving in, and had my stepson's preteen friend call at 11:00 on a work night. AAARRRGGGHHH!

I am the owner of a cell phone. I keep it in my purse in case of an emergency and for convenience. I'm not anti-cell phone. I just wish people would use more manners.

I compiled a list of dos and don'ts for cell phone use which I think are reasonable and based on common sense.

1. Don't answer your cell phone when you're having a meal or a cup of coffee with someone. The implied message is, just a moment while I take this call, there may be someone I would rather be talking to calling me right now.

2. Turn the phone off in the movie theater. If you talk on the cell phone in the theater, you're wasting our $10 and yours. If you must talk, go to the lobby.

3. Don't talk loudly while on the cell phone in public. You're having a private conversation, keep it private. The rest of us do not care about your annoying experience taking your pet to the dog groomer'

4. Use hands free earpieces and voice dial if you must talk in the car. Though for the safety of others, you should pull over when you dial and talk.

5. Don't give your kids a cell phone unless you plan to teach and enforce phone manners, ie. don't call your friends late at night because someone might be sleeping because they have work the next day, manners when taking or making a call. Please consider not getting them one at all. Also, one of the benefits of a family phone is that even though your teens are monopolizing the phone, you know who their friends are. Also, check your school's cell phone policies before allowing your teen to bring a phone to school.

6. Leave your phone in your car if you are going to a--library, theater, museum, church, meeting, cemetery, or classroom.

7. If there is a sign outside of a business asking you to turn off your cell phone. Do it. Trust that there's a good reason, even if it's not obvious to you.