Cell Phone Etiquette
I'll admit to not knowing the entire body of cell phone etiquette, but my general policy is not to let a cell phone interrupt a social occasion or business meeting, unless I know the call is desperate. I try not to take those calls in public. If I think I might disturb someone, I send a text message. Really, these are the basics, but I've noticed how some of the undergrads in the Malebolge pay no attention. I was telling a friend of mine how I got onto an elevator with three young women, all three obviously going to the same place, all three chatting on their Nokias.
To which she gave me an even more powerful image. While she'd been studying outside the Lowe Library, she saw a couple strolling towards Lerner Hall on the way to a social function. They were young, dressed to the nines, and as she put it, "Very beautiful. Very." He had his arm around her, and you couldn't see daylight between them. And yet, as they're walking hip-to-hip, both are holding cell phones in their opposite hands, chatting to someone or other. Physically there, mentally elsewhere.
My mental image of the event was somewhat sinister. I'm sorely tempted to try to find people to recreate the event and get it on film. I've been wondering what I'd do for The Lovers in my Columbia Tarot, and I couldn't imagine anything more appropriate.
