One of the things that drives me crazy ... as I'm sure it does many of you, Dear Readers, is the modern phenomenon of people who insist on chattering away at high volume on their cell phones in public, no matter how personal the subject or annoying to others. Many is the time I've wanted to pitch someone out of the window of the bus because I was sick of hearing about personal problems they had no business sharing with the world. I like George Bilgere's take on it in this poem ...
Bridal Shower
by George Bilgere
Perhaps, in a distant café,
four or five people are talking
with the four or five people
who are chatting on their cell phones this morning
in my favorite café.
And perhaps someone there,
someone like me, is watching them as they frown,
or smile, or shrug
at their invisible friends or lovers,
jabbing the air for emphasis.
And, like me, he misses the old days,
when talking to yourself
meant you were crazy,
back when being crazy was a big deal,
not just an acronym
or something you could take a pill for.
I liked it
when people who were talking to themselves
might actually have been talking to God
or an angel.
You respected people like that.
You didn't want to kill them,
as I want to kill the woman at the next table
with the little blue light on her ear
who has been telling the emptiness in front of her
about her daughter's bridal shower
in astonishing detail
for the past thirty minutes.
O person like me,
phoneless in your distant café,
I wish we could meet to discuss this,
and perhaps you would help me
murder this woman on her cell phone,
after which we could have a cup of coffee,
maybe a bagel, and talk to each other,
face to face.
Next time you're in NoVa, give me a call and we can talk about it. Face to face, of course.
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
5 comments:
I find excessive use of cell phones in public places to be obnoxious, too.
Cell phone users talk louder over the phone than if they wear face-to-face. It may have something to do with the absence of facial expression feedback from the listener.
There's also the persons who go with laptops to coffee shops and stay for hours.
The cell phone (radio telephone) has a built in flaw that will never be fixed. A 1/2 to 1 second delay. To see this yourself, have someone stand ten feet from you and call their cellphone. Then try and hold a conversation while you are looking at them.
The delay can make you think the other person is having trouble hearing you thus the raise in voice level to 'fix' the problem.
Mike has an interesting observation. How many times I have experienced this delay that makes me crazy trying to talk! My frustration is with granddaughters and their friends who seem to be glued to the cell phone....they have to put them up during dinner.
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