In the early days of the telephone there weren’t many options—you were either home to take a call, or not. Then came answering machines, caller ID and the concept of screening. The advent of the cell phone took that concept to bold new heights. With land line phones there was no real way of knowing if the individual was screening a call or simply not home. In the mobile day and age of pocket sized cell phones where an estimated 95% of the population of modern countries owns one and does not leave home without it the chances of someone not taking a call because they are not near their phone is unlikely.
While many consider the habit of un-necessary screening and ignoring calls to be high on the list of cell phone etiquette no-no’s, it probably isn’t any more serious than listening to the answering machine to decide if you want to interrupt the game of the week to talk to the caller. So what does constitute an error in etiquette of cell phone use?
Inappropriate Public Use
This breech of etiquette comes in three phases: talking in crowded areas, answering calls in public venues, and perhaps the most annoying of all, talking on the cell phone while performing tasks involving other people.
• Do not engage in non-emergency cell phone conversations in crowded areas packed with strangers. They simply do not care to be privy to your personal life, likes and dislikes, or any other conversations you are having with friends or family.
• Turn your cell phone off when in a public venue such as the movies, lectures, weddings, or any other function where a ringing phone and subsequent conversation is likely to annoy fellow patrons.
• Don’t walk up to a purchase counter, place an order in a restaurant, or do anything else that requires interaction with another person while holding a cell phone conversation—it is rude.
Annoying Ringtones
Even if your chosen ringtone is funny remember that not everyone’s sense of humour is the same as yours and that cell phones are likely to ring in public places. Do away with annoying stylized ringtones and stick with standard rings, most phones come with a wide enough variety that you can still use them to help you screen calls should you wish to use it for that device.
Obvious Screening
As stated at the beginning this is generally considered the highest ranking cell breech of phone etiquette. There are far better ways than simply not answering a call that give a sense of attempted communication to your caller. Many people return missed calls with text messages and that is common but if you jump the gun and respond too quickly your screening is more obvious. A better method is to actually answer the call and then hang up at the appropriate moment making it appear you have lost signal. No one is the wiser because bad cell phone reception is a widely understood and accepted phenomenon of the mobile age.
Cell phones are one of the modern miracles of the technological age. They give us instant and constant communication. Learning proper etiquette rules helps us all to handle this ability with aplomb.
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