Cell Phone Courtesy Month tries to improve etiquette among mobile users

Though cell phones have given people limitless access to each other, cell phone users have given limitless grief to the people around them. \n"In the middle of a chemistry final exam, a guy's cell phone rang. He answered it and talked for about four minutes. He was talking about his plans for the night," graduate student Sara Flores said, retelling the horror of a rude cell phone user during one of her tough chemistry final exams. "The professor didn't say anything until (a student) in front of the guy said, 'If you don't hang up the phone, I'm going to kill you.'"\nSituations like this are the reason this July is the sixth annual Cell Phone Courtesy Month. This event, created by etiquette expert Jacqueline Whitmore and sponsored by telecommunications company Sprint, is meant to help cell phone users recognize their bad habits and develop good ones.\nA frequent modern reminder in public and private places is "please turn off your cell phones and pagers or turn them to silent mode." Out of respect for neighbors, officemates and classmates, people are expected to practice rules of etiquette that now cover more than just table manners.\nWhitmore created the event in 2001 to inform users of all ages and backgrounds to remember their social graces even with new, convenient technology. She saw a need for such a campaign as cell phones became more commonplace.\n"Technology has traveled faster than social etiquette," said Jonathan Jones, an IU junior and Starbucks employee. "I don't think anyone uses it correctly, including myself. I, too, am culpable."\nWhitmore's belief is similar and her expertise is the major focus of Sprint's promotion of the campaign. In a Communications Insider Podcast on the Sprint Web site, http://podcast.sprint.com, she discusses the problems surrounding wireless technology and teaches listeners how to use these products with respect to the people around them.\nIn a 2004 "Wireless Courtesy Report," which surveyed 723 adult wireless users, Sprint found that 80 percent felt wireless users are rude. However, 97 percent did not believe they were guilty of being rude.\nAs a result, Whitmore said in the podcast, the majority of people agree a problem exists, yet few people recognize the symptoms in themselves.\n"I don't think that (cell phone users) think about what they're doing in many times because we're multitasking," she said in her podcast. "We do a lot of what we do without thinking about what we're doing."\nNick Kojetin, an employee of Starbucks on Indiana Avenue, agreed and noted that as a service employee, he sees a different facet of the issue.\n"It's pretty rude when people come in on their phone," he said. "I think there's no acknowledgement from the customer that we're actual people."\nFlores said she is guilty of talking on her phone while ordering at places like Laughing Planet or Soma, but always thought some coffee shop and restaurant employees didn't want to chat anyway. \n"I think I annoy people. My mom calls me all the time when I'm with my friends," she said. Yet, she added of other cell phone users, "I've sort of accepted them (in public places)."\nBut Whitmore believes accepting rudeness is part of the problem, not the solution. She urges people to think about their actions, whether with their friends or professional clients.\nShe used an example of eating at a restaurant with family, friends or clients when a cell phone rings. She said it's natural to answer the phone, as they would do in a home or office, but it's also rude to the people they're sitting with.\n"You are alienating them, or creating a barrier between you and your family or friends or clients," she said in her podcast. "So it's best, I suggest, to take the call away from the table and keep it brief, or even more important, keep your call on silent or vibrate so that if you do get a call, it doesn't make a loud noise and disrupt the rest of the conversation."\nWhitmore said users' lack of awareness of their behavior is the reason why she created Cell Phone Courtesy Month. She encourages people to be "more proactive, instead of reactive."\nStories of rude cell phone users appear to abound, in public and more private settings.\nKojetin told a story of a recurrent cell phone etiquette breaker who frequents the Indiana Avenue Starbucks.\n"It would never fail," he said. "This guy would pick up his phone and talk on it when he'd get to the counter (to order)."\nKojetin said he wondered if the customer was truly talking to anyone, or just avoiding a chat with the employees.\nFlores also had another unfortunate cell phone story, during a performance of the opera "La Traviata."\n"There's a quiet part that's the highlight of the opera, for dramatic effect," she said. "Right in that section, someone's cell phone went off. The whole theater, which had been waiting for that (dramatic) part, gasped. It was the worst moment in operatic history, and I'm not exaggerating."\nFlores added that the disruption affected the singer onstage, in addition to upsetting the audience.\nPromotions like Cell Phone Courtesy Month have a goal of eliminating annoying and disruptive situations like those that Kojetin and Flores have experienced.\nWhitmore created a list of cell phone etiquette rules that details basic common courtesy to educate all wireless users. They include refraining from discussing private or emotional matters in public areas, putting the people you're with ahead of any phone calls, keeping your voice at a normal tone while speaking on the cell phone and abstaining from making or taking calls while driving.\nEchoing the idea of the Sprint awareness campaign, Jones suggested, "I think we need public service announcements."\nA full list of the cell phone etiquette rules is available on Sprint's Web site at www.sprint.com/etiquette.