That Cell Phone and where you can stuff it.

[Gray]

Seriously. What is the matter with you people?

You cannot even hold a conversation without some rude asswipe deciding that what is on the phone is more important than the person in front of you who is speaking.

I look forward that that mega-solar flare that is going to fry about 2/3 of the orbiting satellites. It cannot happen soon enough.

[khigh]

Seriously. What is the matter with you people?

You cannot even hold a conversation without some rude asswipe deciding that what is on the phone is more important than the person in front of you who is speaking.

I look forward that that mega-solar flare that is going to fry about 2/3 of the orbiting satellites. It cannot happen soon enough.

I usually hang up at stores or restaurants, but, if my husband is calling from Iraq, then I won't hang up the phone. He only gets to call once a week or so for about 15-20 minutes, and that is precious time where we can actually converse. Not all people on cell phones are trying to be rude.

[Gray]

I usually hang up at stores or restaurants, but, if my husband is calling from Iraq, then I won't hang up the phone. He only gets to call once a week or so for about 15-20 minutes, and that is precious time where we can actually converse. Not all people on cell phones are trying to be rude.

Of course not. It should be obvious that those precious moments are not what I am ranting about.

We have become a nation (world) of self centered *******s where cell phones are concerned. Courtesy and manners are dead.

[khigh]

Of course not. It should be obvious that those precious moments are not what I am ranting about.

We have become a nation (world) of self centered *******s where cell phones are concerned. Courtesy and manners are dead.

That is true. Some people just need to read Emily Post's Etiquette book.

[Gray]

That is true. Some people just need to read Emily Post's Etiquette book.

What has set me off is that on a recent visit to friends I was the only one left while everyone else was on the phone.

I was actually in the middle of a conversation when it was terminated for a cell phone call.

[gdoane]

Cell phone calls help filter out people I don't want to talk to.

For example:

I was playing video games with my brother when my home phone rang. My home phones are programmed to ring different for stored numbers so the "normal" ring didn't really mean much. I just let it ring to the answering machine.

My brother was incredulous.

Bro: You're not going to answer that?
Me: Nope, why should I?
Bro: It might be important!
Me: If it's important, then one of my cell phones will ring. If not, screw it.
Bro: So you're not even going to look?
Me: Not right now, no. Don't care. You're up.

We've become a ruder society. I probably only answer 1 in 100 e-mails I get and return maybe 1 in 50 phone calls I get.

The reason why is telemarketing. They've hijacked our communications and made us put up walls, fences to get away from their relentless pestering and cell phones are one of those walls.

For example, of the 18 e-mails I got on Friday, 12 were unsolicited. SPAM. That's with spam filters set at the service level, and at the user level. Probably ten times that much were turned away at the door.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/wireless200805.htm

1 in 6 American households are "wireless only", that is to say there's a phone in the house but it's only a cell phone. Millions of homes are "cutting the wires" (and the bills) of a traditional phone jack and 1 in 8 homes receive all calls on cell phones DESPITE having a traditional phone in the home.

It's a case of rudeness begets rudeness. Telemarketing started this feud and these rude cold callers used the White Pages phone book as their weapon of choice. When cell phones reached consumer level affordability, consumers found a communications tool which hadn't been land mined by telemarketing... yet.

There's no doubting that telemarketers are rude and stupid brutes. I didn't even have my brand new 2008 Ford F-150 pickup for two days before clueless telemarketers called and called and called pitching a warranty for a truck that I'd already bought a 75,000 mile full factory warranty on.

There's little doubt that telemarketing drives the migration from wired to wireless. The entire "Do Not Call" initiative was driven by the threat of telemarketing relentless bastards going after cell phone numbers too.

Fences are borders, even if they're just lines in the sand. When people say no and you press on, that's rude. That's crossing a line.

So what are phone owners to do? Their line has been crossed, and find that telemarketers account for the majority of times the phone rings, so they have two options.

Would they rather "Fight Than Switch" (Lucky Strike Tobacco Commercial, if you're under 40 you won't get it) or just flee to a place that telemarketers aren't allowed into?

Cell phones offered a region to flee into, a "promised land" free of spammers.


The flee option wins. The stake in the heart of AT&T was the White Page Directory. The killer was Spammers and telemarketing.

Are we a rude society? Yep. And here's the reason why:

When people are confronted with rudeness, they will themselves be rude. It's a reciprocity of rudeness, or to put it bluntly, you will get what you give.

If I were going to go biblical here, as you sew so shall you reap.

We are a society confronted with rudeness and since spamming is taking advantage of a welcoming, the only answers to that is thewithdrawal of a welcome, or rudeness in return.

Rudeness begets rudeness. Telemarketing is rude and it has caused a massive emigration away from their vicious spam-filled claws.

[Samm]

Of course not. It should be obvious that those precious moments are not what I am ranting about.

We have become a nation (world) of self centered *******s where cell phones are concerned. Courtesy and manners are dead.

... and it seems that at least every third car has a driver who has one hand on the wheel (or gesturing like a damned fool) and the other holding a phone up to their ear. What can possibly be so important that it cannot wait until you are off the road? If I had a big old beat up 3/4 ton pickup with a big heavy welded bumper they would be off the road. :twisted:

[LouC]

Seriously. What is the matter with you people?

You cannot even hold a conversation without some rude asswipe deciding that what is on the phone is more important than the person in front of you who is speaking.

I look forward that that mega-solar flare that is going to fry about 2/3 of the orbiting satellites. It cannot happen soon enough.

C'mon Gray, don't hold back now, tell us how you really feel. :mrgreen:

[Gray]

... and it seems that at least every third car has a driver who has one hand on the wheel (or gesturing like a damned fool) and the other holding a phone up to their ear. What can possibly be so important that it cannot wait until you are off the road? If I had a big old beat up 3/4 ton pickup with a big heavy welded bumper they would be off the road. :twisted:

That should get the same penalty as DUI.

[Dreamy]

What has set me off is that on a recent visit to friends I was the only one left while everyone else was on the phone.

I was actually in the middle of a conversation when it was terminated for a cell phone call.

I am in complete agreement with you Gray. Very rude. And cell phones in the hands of many has only shown what a "me me me" mentality is out there.

Cell phones should be ignored when in a meeting or on a visit unless an emergency. The caller's ID should allow most calls to be ignored.

[Scarlet37]

I once had someone come to my office to discuss something. About two minutes into our conversation, his cell rang, he answered, and proceeded to start a conversation with whoever was on the other end. After sitting there for a few minutes, I thought "screw this" and took a walk to Dunkin Donuts to get a coffee. When I got back I had a voicemail message from him telling me it was inconsiderate to blow him off!

[Gray]

I once had someone come to my office to discuss something. About two minutes into our conversation, his cell rang, he answered, and proceeded to start a conversation with whoever was on the other end. After sitting there for a few minutes, I thought "screw this" and took a walk to Dunkin Donuts to get a coffee. When I got back I had a voicemail message from him telling me it was inconsiderate to blow him off!


Amazing.

[blackcatrun]

Seriously. What is the matter with you people?

You cannot even hold a conversation without some rude asswipe deciding that what is on the phone is more important than the person in front of you who is speaking.

I look forward that that mega-solar flare that is going to fry about 2/3 of the orbiting satellites. It cannot happen soon enough.

Well I am not the only one getting sick of the cell phone interupption.
This has happened to me more times that I got fed up and just walk out or NOW after being called rude, inconsiderate for leaving when an idiot decides to pick up the cell phone and leave me standing there like a fool waiting for them to finish up a LOUD conversation.
I put up with this so often it became me just standing there like a third wheel. I got dumped by freinds because of this talk on the phone constantly thing became me just walking away. Got took to lunch to be told how rude I was for it.

I dont put up with this any more.
I now scream {not yell scream} over a cell conversation. HEY gotta go! Got better things to do than stand here watch you yak, so go **** yourself. Let me know when you get over being a jerk.

Shocks them for sure.

By the way watch out in parking lots for cell phone drivers. They back into cars, hit people walking in the parking lots, run over dogs.
Watched one addiction talker the other day drive her car right into the gas pumps at a station. Never stopped her conversation even while the employees was trying to get her insurance info.

[Thank you Troops]

It's not just cell phones but phones in general. For some reason people think that a call is more important than the person standing in front of them talking to them. Maybe it's because we use the phone to call 9-1-1 and people start thinking every call is an emergency.

I walked into an auto parts store and was standing waiting while the clerk was on the phone. While he was on the phone another call came in and he missed it. He hung up with the first caller and told me to hold on while he kept his hand on the phone "in case that call comes back through". After about a minute he decided the caller was not going to call back and decided to help me. Funny stuff.

[MrShotShot]

Absolutely true.

As much as I enjoy new technology, we are becoming so dependant upon our phones that we're losing the ability to make even the simplest decisions without consulting others or live independantly. I know college students who talk to or text their parents at least 10 times a day - where is the independance in that?

[birddog1]

It's not just cell phones but phones in general. For some reason people think that a call is more important than the person standing in front of them talking to them. Maybe it's because we use the phone to call 9-1-1 and people start thinking every call is an emergency.

I walked into an auto parts store and was standing waiting while the clerk was on the phone. While he was on the phone another call came in and he missed it. He hung up with the first caller and told me to hold on while he kept his hand on the phone "in case that call comes back through". After about a minute he decided the caller was not going to call back and decided to help me. Funny stuff.

I know exactly what you mean. I was standing at the counter of an auto parts store the other day and the lady answered two calls instead of waiting on me. I mean, hell, I am standing there with money in my hand ready to pay and she is treating me as though the phone is more important.

[birddog1]

... and it seems that at least every third car has a driver who has one hand on the wheel (or gesturing like a damned fool) and the other holding a phone up to their ear. What can possibly be so important that it cannot wait until you are off the road? If I had a big old beat up 3/4 ton pickup with a big heavy welded bumper they would be off the road. :twisted:

You left out the part where they are driving 10 mph below the speed limit in the passing lane.

It should be perfectly legal to spin them into the ditch whenever and wherever you encounter them.

[Dreamy]

OMG,these stories are all too familiar! I am ticked off just reading some of them.

[ISYairio]

I need a new cell phone... mine quits on me if I use it too much... then I gotta turn it off and on again...

By quit, I mean the text flips and the color inverts, goes static on screen, etc... lol :))

[mysticbeauty_nbeast]

Cell phone calls help filter out people I don't want to talk to.

For example:

I was playing video games with my brother when my home phone rang. My home phones are programmed to ring different for stored numbers so the "normal" ring didn't really mean much. I just let it ring to the answering machine.

My brother was incredulous.

Bro: You're not going to answer that?
Me: Nope, why should I?
Bro: It might be important!
Me: If it's important, then one of my cell phones will ring. If not, screw it.
Bro: So you're not even going to look?
Me: Not right now, no. Don't care. You're up.

We've become a ruder society. I probably only answer 1 in 100 e-mails I get and return maybe 1 in 50 phone calls I get.

The reason why is telemarketing. They've hijacked our communications and made us put up walls, fences to get away from their relentless pestering and cell phones are one of those walls.

For example, of the 18 e-mails I got on Friday, 12 were unsolicited. SPAM. That's with spam filters set at the service level, and at the user level. Probably ten times that much were turned away at the door.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/wireless200805.htm

1 in 6 American households are "wireless only", that is to say there's a phone in the house but it's only a cell phone. Millions of homes are "cutting the wires" (and the bills) of a traditional phone jack and 1 in 8 homes receive all calls on cell phones DESPITE having a traditional phone in the home.

It's a case of rudeness begets rudeness. Telemarketing started this feud and these rude cold callers used the White Pages phone book as their weapon of choice. When cell phones reached consumer level affordability, consumers found a communications tool which hadn't been land mined by telemarketing... yet.

There's no doubting that telemarketers are rude and stupid brutes. I didn't even have my brand new 2008 Ford F-150 pickup for two days before clueless telemarketers called and called and called pitching a warranty for a truck that I'd already bought a 75,000 mile full factory warranty on.

There's little doubt that telemarketing drives the migration from wired to wireless. The entire "Do Not Call" initiative was driven by the threat of telemarketing relentless bastards going after cell phone numbers too.

Fences are borders, even if they're just lines in the sand. When people say no and you press on, that's rude. That's crossing a line.

So what are phone owners to do? Their line has been crossed, and find that telemarketers account for the majority of times the phone rings, so they have two options.

Would they rather "Fight Than Switch" (Lucky Strike Tobacco Commercial, if you're under 40 you won't get it) or just flee to a place that telemarketers aren't allowed into?

Cell phones offered a region to flee into, a "promised land" free of spammers.


The flee option wins. The stake in the heart of AT&T was the White Page Directory. The killer was Spammers and telemarketing.

Are we a rude society? Yep. And here's the reason why:

When people are confronted with rudeness, they will themselves be rude. It's a reciprocity of rudeness, or to put it bluntly, you will get what you give.

If I were going to go biblical here, as you sew so shall you reap.

We are a society confronted with rudeness and since spamming is taking advantage of a welcoming, the only answers to that is thewithdrawal of a welcome, or rudeness in return.

Rudeness begets rudeness. Telemarketing is rude and it has caused a massive emigration away from their vicious spam-filled claws.

+100! :mrgreen:

~Mysty

[mysticbeauty_nbeast]

OMG,these stories are all too familiar! I am ticked off just reading some of them.

Me too...can't believe how similar this type of behavior is where ever we hail from. It's a pandemic! :wall:

What really blows me away is the spam type calls...and how the 'telemarketer' will push you with..."But wait..wait...M'eem...let me teal u aboot"...:rolleyes:

I have found of late with the calls I get from spamer telemarketing is they rarely speak English as their first language....and leave you no choice but to be rude, hanging up on them after polite refusal of their offer doesn't work. :rolleyes:

It's gotten to the point where I screen all my calls. If I don't recognize a number?...they can leave a message. I turn off the phone when I'm with another human being or in a place of business. Honestly, I see few others staving off the phone regardless where they are at or what they doing.

~Mysty

[Samm]

I once had someone come to my office to discuss something. About two minutes into our conversation, his cell rang, he answered, and proceeded to start a conversation with whoever was on the other end. After sitting there for a few minutes, I thought "screw this" and took a walk to Dunkin Donuts to get a coffee. When I got back I had a voicemail message from him telling me it was inconsiderate to blow him off!

The correct response to that would be a sweet "Oh... I'm sorry... I figured you were done with our business since YOU ANSWERED YOUR GOD DAMNED PHONE!"

[Samm]

I know exactly what you mean. I was standing at the counter of an auto parts store the other day and the lady answered two calls instead of waiting on me. I mean, hell, I am standing there with money in my hand ready to pay and she is treating me as though the phone is more important.

She probably would have hung up in a hurry if you had picked up the items and started to walk out with them. ;)

[Samm]

OMG,these stories are all too familiar! I am ticked off just reading some of them.

Reading them makes me proud of my 20 yr-old daughter (who lives with us while going to school.) She practically lives on her phone, but she will just check the ID and not answer it when she is talking to anyone, she turns it off while we eat dinner, and does not use it while driving... and she unloads on her friends that do.

[Pudge]

... and it seems that at least every third car has a driver who has one hand on the wheel (or gesturing like a damned fool) and the other holding a phone up to their ear. What can possibly be so important that it cannot wait until you are off the road? If I had a big old beat up 3/4 ton pickup with a big heavy welded bumper they would be off the road. :twisted:

When I am on the phone while driving, it's usually part of my job. Some people don't have visible numbers on their house, or they ask specifically to call so they can come meet me at the door if it's a secure building, for example. I call en route because that way, they are at the door when I pull up. I only dial at red lights or when I am stopped, I never text, and I keep the conversations short.

I've been doing this so long that I have no problems driving while on the phone. My conversations are never weighty enough to distract me or long enough to pull my focus away from the road. If it gets that way I will park and chat. Yet, once in a while, some self-righteous prig will see me on the phone while stopped at a red light and yell at me. Last guy who did it got followed to the park and intimidated in front of his children. I am a responsible driver and I know what I am doing, and anyone who lumps me in with the cackling hens who drive cars way bigger than they need who can't stay in lane while yammering on their phone is going to get an earful from me.

[Antrel]

I must admit there was ONE time I bought a 20 oz. pop at the store and was talking on my phone as the cashier rang it up. I did extend a "hi, how ya doin'?" but still felt like a jerk afterward.

[Pudge]

Yeah, I won't interrupt a business transaction or a conversation to answer my phone, and if I am in mid-convo I will tell the person on the phone to hold on when I have to talk to someone face to face. Common courtesy.

[Thank you Troops]

I must admit there was ONE time I bought a 20 oz. pop at the store and was talking on my phone as the cashier rang it up. I did extend a "hi, how ya doin'?" but still felt like a jerk afterward.

Nothing wrong with that. Having conversations with the check out clerks while othes are waiting in line is another thread I am sure. :)

[Dreamy]

How about the dirty glances one gets because you dare be in the same public air/listening space as someone on a cell phone talking often quite loudly? Like hey darlin',you move or lower YOUR voice. Not my fault you feel a need to discuss your life drama in public.

[Wilhelm Scream]

You would not believe how many times I have heard, "Hey? What's up? Nothing, just watching a movie..." in a movie theater. Cell phones have the potential to be very rude devices. With responsibility, however, a cell phone can go almost completely unnoticed. It's like smoking - I don't mind so much if the person is being respectful about it. I think that is where the heart of the problem lies. It's a lack of respect for each other.

I am all for mobile phone jammers in certain areas - like movie theaters and restaurants. Maybe even in grocery store checkout lines. Nothing is too important to where it cannot wait until the parking lot.

[Gray]

I need a new cell phone... mine quits on me if I use it too much... then I gotta turn it off and on again...

By quit, I mean the text flips and the color inverts, goes static on screen, etc... lol :))

They need to make all phones like that.

[Samm]

When I am on the phone while driving, it's usually part of my job. Some people don't have visible numbers on their house, or they ask specifically to call so they can come meet me at the door if it's a secure building, for example. I call en route because that way, they are at the door when I pull up. I only dial at red lights or when I am stopped, I never text, and I keep the conversations short.

I've been doing this so long that I have no problems driving while on the phone. My conversations are never weighty enough to distract me or long enough to pull my focus away from the road. If it gets that way I will park and chat. Yet, once in a while, some self-righteous prig will see me on the phone while stopped at a red light and yell at me. Last guy who did it got followed to the park and intimidated in front of his children. I am a responsible driver and I know what I am doing, and anyone who lumps me in with the cackling hens who drive cars way bigger than they need who can't stay in lane while yammering on their phone is going to get an earful from me.

There ya go... rationalizing your bad behavior by saying you aren't like the rest of those cell phone fools. :razz:


;)

[jeepers]

Most of the time, I forget that I have a cell phone, let alone remember to charge it! LOL I have a message on my cell phone that says if you want to leave a message for me, call my house phone because I rarely check my cell phone one.

I rarely speak while driving, but it's usually only kid coordination with my husband or something like 'going to be ten minutes late". I don't hang on the phone in the car.

I learned about being 'too wired' 13 years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter. My husband had a pager that was only to be used if I went into labour and he was out of town on business or something. After I had the baby, I started using it because we had paid for the service. It was fun at first for a non-techno savvy person.

UNTIL I was in the middle of the MacArthur 'maze' (where three freeways intersect and it repeatedly kept going off. Bad traffic, impossible to pull over. I saw that it was my sister's number and she paged me repeatedly. I figured that something bad had happened.

So I find the next exit, search for a pay phone in a not great part of town (Yeah, there were still some around back then) and I called her. She answers the phone and says "Hey, whaddya doing?" :eek:

aGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGh!

The beeper turned into a baby toy and at some point was tossed.

It taught me that there was very little that I ABSOLUTELY need to discuss on the road during my normal daily life. Yes, I have a cell phone because I have school aged kids and live in the boons. I have been called that a kid can't take the activity bus, and the last time was 'your son had a head injury, you need to come" a few weeks ago. And I was calling the ped's office with my dizzy kid in the car on the way to get his head CT'd...

Yep, I'll drive and talk when necessary, but I'm not going to call you while driving to say 'hey whaddya doing?"

And if you are my husband, have that damn thing go off in the middle of dinner and start chatting? It'd better be your boss or someone's ass is on fire.

[khigh]

Most of the time, I forget that I have a cell phone, let alone remember to charge it! LOL I have a message on my cell phone that says if you want to leave a message for me, call my house phone because I rarely check my cell phone one.

I rarely speak while driving, but it's usually only kid coordination with my husband or something like 'going to be ten minutes late". I don't hang on the phone in the car.

I learned about being 'too wired' 13 years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter. My husband had a pager that was only to be used if I went into labour and he was out of town on business or something. After I had the baby, I started using it because we had paid for the service. It was fun at first for a non-techno savvy person.

UNTIL I was in the middle of the MacArthur 'maze' (where three freeways intersect and it repeatedly kept going off. Bad traffic, impossible to pull over. I saw that it was my sister's number and she paged me repeatedly. I figured that something bad had happened.

So I find the next exit, search for a pay phone in a not great part of town (Yeah, there were still some around back then) and I called her. She answers the phone and says "Hey, whaddya doing?" :eek:

aGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGh!

The beeper turned into a baby toy and at some point was tossed.

It taught me that there was very little that I ABSOLUTELY need to discuss on the road during my normal daily life. Yes, I have a cell phone because I have school aged kids and live in the boons. I have been called that a kid can't take the activity bus, and the last time was 'your son had a head injury, you need to come" a few weeks ago. And I was calling the ped's office with my dizzy kid in the car on the way to get his head CT'd...

Yep, I'll drive and talk when necessary, but I'm not going to call you while driving to say 'hey whaddya doing?"

And if you are my husband, have that damn thing go off in the middle of dinner and start chatting? It'd better be your boss or someone's ass is on fire.

I rarely talk on the phone while driving. For one, it's illegal on post. The only reason for me to talk on the phone while driving is either my daughter's daycare calling or my husband is calling from Iraq. If it's safe and I know it's going to be a long conversation, I pull over. If I'm on that long boring stretch of I-44 between Lawton and OKC (usually few cars and more cows than people), I can talk the whole trip. I could almost drive it asleep (drive that route every Monday and Friday).

[EmmanuelGoldstein]

Cell phone calls help filter out people I don't want to talk to.

For example:

I was playing video games with my brother when my home phone rang. My home phones are programmed to ring different for stored numbers so the "normal" ring didn't really mean much. I just let it ring to the answering machine.

My brother was incredulous.

Bro: You're not going to answer that?
Me: Nope, why should I?
Bro: It might be important!
Me: If it's important, then one of my cell phones will ring. If not, screw it.
Bro: So you're not even going to look?
Me: Not right now, no. Don't care. You're up.

We've become a ruder society. I probably only answer 1 in 100 e-mails I get and return maybe 1 in 50 phone calls I get.

The reason why is telemarketing. They've hijacked our communications and made us put up walls, fences to get away from their relentless pestering and cell phones are one of those walls.

For example, of the 18 e-mails I got on Friday, 12 were unsolicited. SPAM. That's with spam filters set at the service level, and at the user level. Probably ten times that much were turned away at the door.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/wireless200805.htm

1 in 6 American households are "wireless only", that is to say there's a phone in the house but it's only a cell phone. Millions of homes are "cutting the wires" (and the bills) of a traditional phone jack and 1 in 8 homes receive all calls on cell phones DESPITE having a traditional phone in the home.

It's a case of rudeness begets rudeness. Telemarketing started this feud and these rude cold callers used the White Pages phone book as their weapon of choice. When cell phones reached consumer level affordability, consumers found a communications tool which hadn't been land mined by telemarketing... yet.

There's no doubting that telemarketers are rude and stupid brutes. I didn't even have my brand new 2008 Ford F-150 pickup for two days before clueless telemarketers called and called and called pitching a warranty for a truck that I'd already bought a 75,000 mile full factory warranty on.

There's little doubt that telemarketing drives the migration from wired to wireless. The entire "Do Not Call" initiative was driven by the threat of telemarketing relentless bastards going after cell phone numbers too.

Fences are borders, even if they're just lines in the sand. When people say no and you press on, that's rude. That's crossing a line.

So what are phone owners to do? Their line has been crossed, and find that telemarketers account for the majority of times the phone rings, so they have two options.

Would they rather "Fight Than Switch" (Lucky Strike Tobacco Commercial, if you're under 40 you won't get it) or just flee to a place that telemarketers aren't allowed into?

Cell phones offered a region to flee into, a "promised land" free of spammers.


The flee option wins. The stake in the heart of AT&T was the White Page Directory. The killer was Spammers and telemarketing.

Are we a rude society? Yep. And here's the reason why:

When people are confronted with rudeness, they will themselves be rude. It's a reciprocity of rudeness, or to put it bluntly, you will get what you give.

If I were going to go biblical here, as you sew so shall you reap.

We are a society confronted with rudeness and since spamming is taking advantage of a welcoming, the only answers to that is thewithdrawal of a welcome, or rudeness in return.

Rudeness begets rudeness. Telemarketing is rude and it has caused a massive emigration away from their vicious spam-filled claws.

Do Not Disturb. $3 a month.

Tons of options. When the service is on, instead of a ring the caller hears a recording that you do not wish to be disturbed (there are three recordings to choose from, or make your own). The phone does not ring on your end at all. You can program it to send the call to a voice mail, or simply hang up on 'em.

You can program it to be on until you turn it off, or for a set number of hours, or on certain days.

You can program numbers you wish to automatically go through (the phone will ring normally when a call comes from that number) or you can simply give those you wish to talk to a 4 digit pass-code they punch in when the recording starts to play (and then their call rings through).

As a day-sleeper, I turn it on before I go to bed. I've given my daughter, brother and father the code. They know if they hear the recording that I'm sleeping, and to ask themselves if it's really that important they speak to me. If so, they punch in the passcode. I don't have to choose between unplugging the phone and risk missing a truly important call or leaving it on and being awakened throughout the day by those idiot telemarketers (and friends who still do not understand the concept of 'night shift').

It. Is. Awesome.

[monkeymom]

Of course not. It should be obvious that those precious moments are not what I am ranting about.

We have become a nation (world) of self centered *******s where cell phones are concerned. Courtesy and manners are dead.

I agree with you. I refuse to answer my cell phone when I am checking out at a grocery store, will not talk on it when I am in a restaurant or even going through a drive-thru. I certainly will not answer it when I am having a conversation with someone - unless it is one of my kids calling and I am conversing with one of my other kids, in that instance the two probably wind up being related anyway so I will answer.

[PeterGriffin]

My problem is the reverse; being on a cell phone conservation and when you're listening people come up and just start in. The conversation usually then goes something like "Hey...Dave, can you hold on for a sec? Thanks. Hey **** stick, this thing I'm holding up to my face isn't a ****ing electric shaver."

I'm a pretty heavy cell phone user, not talk so much as contact management and email, but you can be rest assured if we're talking face to face and I cut you off to take a cell phone call, you weren't very interesting anyway.

[Gray]

I agree with you. I refuse to answer my cell phone when I am checking out at a grocery store, will not talk on it when I am in a restaurant or even going through a drive-thru. I certainly will not answer it when I am having a conversation with someone - unless it is one of my kids calling and I am conversing with one of my other kids, in that instance the two probably wind up being related anyway so I will answer.

Outstanding. Congrats.

[Gray]

It used to be so easy to tell who the crazy people were.

They went around talking to themselves.

[blackcatrun]

A small hand held device called a tazer was given to me, the thing was broken so I experimented with diffrent parts trying to make a powerful eletromagnet, Ended up discharging a EMP pulse. I was messing around showing it to my friends poof everything went silent...oops. So that was my bit of bad luck yesterday.
I got six cell phones with it, had to buy a new siliniod for the starter on the car a tool set and a new watch battery. I think it got the garage door opener too. I took it apart so as not to do that again.

I was thinking I would make a small pocket sized signal jammer. Reach out about seven to ten feet and block off cell phones. No more tazers forsure I am not going to do that agian. Sure would make it nice to not hear them for a while.

[NascarGirl2448]

Absolutely true.

As much as I enjoy new technology, we are becoming so dependant upon our phones that we're losing the ability to make even the simplest decisions without consulting others or live independantly. I know college students who talk to or text their parents at least 10 times a day - where is the independance in that?

They must have a mother like mine! Even now that I live on my own, if I don't call home every night, my mom calls me! Although I can make a simple decision on my own, I always end up asking my mom or my roommate for advice if I have a real dilemma.

[Pudge]

There ya go... rationalizing your bad behavior by saying you aren't like the rest of those cell phone fools. :razz:


;)

Hehehe, I'm not!!!

[Pudge]

A small hand held device called a tazer was given to me, the thing was broken so I experimented with diffrent parts trying to make a powerful eletromagnet, Ended up discharging a EMP pulse. I was messing around showing it to my friends poof everything went silent...oops. So that was my bit of bad luck yesterday.
I got six cell phones with it, had to buy a new siliniod for the starter on the car a tool set and a new watch battery. I think it got the garage door opener too. I took it apart so as not to do that again.

I was thinking I would make a small pocket sized signal jammer. Reach out about seven to ten feet and block off cell phones. No more tazers forsure I am not going to do that agian. Sure would make it nice to not hear them for a while.

That would be great, until a drunk driver runs over a girl who just got off her bus just after you disabled cell phones and it took 5 crucial minutes to get to a working phone to call 911.

[gdoane]

That would be great, until a drunk driver runs over a girl who just got off her bus just after you disabled cell phones and it took 5 crucial minutes to get to a working phone to call 911.

Jammers are illegal to sell and use in the USA and getting caught using one is good for an $11,000 fine.

[neoINDIE]

Seriously. What is the matter with you people?

You cannot even hold a conversation without some rude asswipe deciding that what is on the phone is more important than the person in front of you who is speaking.

I look forward that that mega-solar flare that is going to fry about 2/3 of the orbiting satellites. It cannot happen soon enough.

What ****es me off is when someone calls the cops, then when you get there they keep answering their phone or text messages while you are trying to get their statement.

I've literally taken peoples phones from them and tossed them across the room.

"Now. What were you saying?|