Do You Have to Pick That Up?

I know I said I like to talk about politics and football, but I really thought I had to start off with something that REALLY bothers me. One of my favorite writers (Gregg Easterbrook, check his football stuff out here: http://www.nfl.com/writers/easterbrook) has a running item that he calls "The Decline of Western Civilization". Well, I think today's cell phone usage falls into that category.

Let me ask you this: how many times have you been in the middle of a conversation with someone (in person) and had them say "hold on a sec" to answer a cell phone call? Now don't get me wrong, I have no problem if you need to find out what time to be someplace (or it's actually an emergency) but 99% of the time it's to chat. Why do people give preference to someone who is calling on a cell phone when a live human being is in front of them? Whoever is in person has made a larger commitment to spend time with you then whomever is calling on the phone. Don't they deserve your time more than the person who is calling you? I mildly understand the urge to answer the phone. Anytime an alert message goes out we as humans feel compelled to respond (just like a fire alarm). However I've sat and watched numerous people talk to a friend of theirs on the phone about a whole lot of nothing, while I sit across from them wishing I owned a hand gun.

I'd think that perhaps this problem was localized to me and the fact that I talk a lot, but I've seen it happen to many people. Even my parents, who I love dearly, will interrupt dinner when their cell phone rings. My parents were the first people to get CallerID when I was growing up so that they didn't ever have to answer the phone when we were at dinner (and my Dad stopped answering the phone altogether). They're huge on etiquette of all kinds, and my Dad things of himself as a kindred spirit of Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld and Woody Allen (that is to say that he likes to comment on things that people do that doesn't make sense. I guess it runs in the family). I don't eat that many meals with them anymore now that I live in California, but if their cell phone rings and we happen to be eating together, they'll get up to talk on the phone. It blows my mind.

Now, it also bothers me, when I'm the offending caller, and the person that I call doesn't warn me. I like to practice what I preach, but when I call someone I have no way of knowing what they're doing when they pick up unless they tell me. I expect whoever it is that I've called to alert me that they're in the presence of another human being that they were interacting with prior to the time that they picked up my call. I've talked to people for 10-15 minutes only to find that they'd been ignoring someone the whole time!