Amazing cluelessness

[Brad Hamilton]

Is it just me or is being stupid with cell phones the new fashion? All these people walking around looking down at their cell phones, pants on the ground and not giving two shakes about what is going on around them. Do they know what we are thinking about them? Do they even care?

I've attempted to shame people for their bad manners with cell phones, but it's like they look at me as if I'm from another planet. A few weeks ago I was in a retail store and I asked the clerk for some assistance with finding a product they had advertised on sale. The woman (in her 40s at least) however was too busy typing something on her cell phone behind the counter. When I asked her again if she could please help me, she said "just a mintue I'm almost done". Her "just a minute" was actually several minutes, and then she didn't even apologize for making me wait. After I finally found the item I needed to purchase and was then making my payment, I delayed giving the clerk the money. The woman seemed perplexed as I just stood there without getting out my money or credit card to pay. When she asked me "are you paying with credit?" I said, "just a minute I'm almost done." I then just stood there for a full minute staring at her without saying anything and then said, "there, how does it feel to be disrespected, ignored, and your time wasted?"

I don't even think she connected the dots in her mind. We are surely doomed.

[slave to zep]

Is it just me or is being stupid with cell phones the new fashion? All these people walking around looking down at their cell phones, pants on the ground and not giving two shakes about what is going on around them. Do they know what we are thinking about them? Do they even care?

I've attempted to shame people for their bad manners with cell phones, but it's like they look at me as if I'm from another planet. A few weeks ago I was in a retail store and I asked the clerk for some assistance with finding a product they had advertised on sale. The woman (in her 40s at least) however was too busy typing something on her cell phone behind the counter. When I asked her again if she could please help me, she said "just a mintue I'm almost done". Her "just a minute" was actually several minutes, and then she didn't even apologize for making me wait. After I finally found the item I needed to purchase and was then making my payment, I delayed giving the clerk the money. The woman seemed perplexed as I just stood there without getting out my money or credit card to pay. When she asked me "are you paying with credit?" I said, "just a minute I'm almost done." I then just stood there for a full minute staring at her without saying anything and then said, "there, how does it feel to be disrespected, ignored, and your time wasted?"

I don't even think she connected the dots in her mind. We are surely doomed.

i love that you did that!

so what did she say to you after you said "you were nearly done " ?

i work in retail, and there is NO WAY we would be tolerated for doing that! we are not even allowed to have our phones on us at work.

and i would never do that to a customer.

one thing i have noticed is a lot of customer service people, cashiers etc, don't even say " thankyou" when you hand over your money! i always say thankyou when handing my money over, yet sometimes they just take it and say for eg " $1.50 change", and then move on to the next customer. i want to scream at them " say thankyou!!!! "

in my job i don't have to handle money, but even so, i ALWAYS say thankyou when i have finished serving someone.

[SummrMoon]

Good for you Brad!

[MrZoSo]

Good for you Brad. I won't stand for it. When I address students at the job I make sure all phones are OFF. You don't like it? You are out! I do a lot of driving. I can't tell you how many times I have seen people texting, not paying a bit of attention to the road. It is an epidemic.

On my way home today I realized a young woman texting while cruising in the left lane doing around 45. I had to go around her on a 2 lane highway. When I passed her, I seen why. Texting. I got along side her, blew the horn, and she did not even look up! Seriously, this is a HUGE problem. People are dying. Texting while driving should come with a 10K fine and 2 weeks in the clink. Enough already.

[TypeO]

My favorite is people who have "suddenly" discovered speakerphone, and walk down the middle of a sidewalk or aisle holding the phone out in front of their face and speaking (usually more loudly than if used normally) directly into the face of the phone like a walkie-talkie.

And no I'm not referring to actual PTT users.

It is so idiotic looking.

[hecube]

I hate humanity

[PerpetualMotion]

I absolutely agree with everything above, even the hating humanity.

As much as it may seem like an oxymoron, I can like individual's but not the collective of humanity.

I also find these problems with cell phones are mostly  with the young.  It's all they know, so those who admonish their cell behavior ARE seen as being from another planet.I even said in my "what do you believe in" post in another thread that I believe mankind is doomed for failure and this is just one symptom, but actually pretty major.

I ride a bicycle quite often and I ride on sidewalks but am very careful and considerate as I tool around.  I come across many, many people, again mostly  young who are texting or fidgeting with some other device in the bent neck downwards posture that has become so commonplace.  They're often very startled when I come up on them riding, and I always say,

"Good thing I was watching, ehh ?"

Not only texting but those blue-tooth devices drive me bonkers.  I still  think the people walking around 'talking into thin air' are insane.  Keep it private, at least make an attempt to isolate yourself and your conversation.

I have ZERO tolerance for idiocy.

Edited May 23, 2011 by PerpetualMotion

[JethroTull]

Don't even get me started on this topic!! Well, I'll tell one story. A couple of months ago I was getting my hair cut. The guy cutting my hair took a call on his cell phone, stopped cutting my hair and proceeded to give directions to the shop to a friend of his. I was patient, but could tell the friend was having trouble understanding how to get to the shop. I ripped the guy a new a-hole in front of his boss, co-workers and store patrons.

[SteveAJones]

I hate cellphones as well as blackberries and I refuse to carry them. If I need to take or make a call I have someone do it for me. You'd think these devices would be a major irritant on the always packed Tokyo subways but you may be surprised to learn cellphone etiquette prevails over here. Everyone ensures their ringer is off before boarding the train, though they'll use them to text or play games, surf the net, whatever. I've only heard a cellphone ring on the train twice and both times it was a foreigner (gaijin).

I hate paying cash at registers in the United States because 99.9% of the time the cashier is going to do the one thing that pisses me off more than being in line behind someone writing a check and that's hand me the currency then pile all the coins on top. Asinine! Put the coins in my hand first (in which case I will immediately put them all into my pocket) and then hand me the currency. It wasn't always this way but I think the introduction of barcode scanners encouraged this bum rush approach to a sales transaction. Over here there is a little tray on the countertop to give and receive coins and currency which is quite convienent.

I hate ATMs for two reasons. One, depending upon where you are you could get taken for up to $4.00 just to withdraw your own money, which is only acceptable given the dreadful alternative (standing in line at the bank all day). Secondly, no one keeps their distance anymore. When ATMs were first introduced it seems to me people kept at least 15 to 20 feet away. The encroachment nowadays borders on the absurd. You turn around and there's someone literally six inches away, undoubtledly oblivious to the fact you are trying to get around their fat ass because they are too busy talking or texting on their cellphone.

Edited May 23, 2011 by SteveAJones

[PerpetualMotion]

Are there any kids in this thread?

[SteveAJones]

Are there any kids in this thread?

I turned 13 last week which makes me - a teen - not a kid! You better recognize.

[Bong-Man]

Ha ! You should see the students walk out of the front doors of school. Not one with their head up.....bumping into people....tripping over curbs....cars stopped dead because students are literally walking right into their bumper in the street.

If I was a cashier, I wouldn't wait on anyone talking on a cell phone.....and anyone walking around a store talking out loud on a blue-tooth during their lunch hour is a fool.

Don't you love when you're at a red light and the moron in front of you is texting ? The light turns green, and you give a gentle beep so they know to get their head out of their ass, and they flip you off.....because they're texting ! UGH....the insanity of it all !!

I crack up when I'm at a red light on the way to work and every person is talking on their cell-phone. There isn't anyone in my life that I want to talk to at 6:30am ever.....you better be in jail, dying, or hit 6 numbers in the Powerball lottery and want to share.

[JPJ = the groovinator]

I am 18 and I absolutely hate texting. I hate texting girls and then you don't understand one another because there is zero emotion through text.

And don't get me started on the kids walking in halls texting stopping right infront of you only for you to walk right into them and then they get mad. I tell them to have some common sense and move to the side first.

[Strider]

You want CLUELESS? Here's a story about a woman who was finally kicked off a train after yapping on her cellphone for 16 hours while in the "Quiet Car", a designated "no cellphone" zone. Then she has the nerve to claim SHE felt "disrespected"...someone needs to tell her that respect is not owed, it's earned. Read on for the full story:Woman thrown off train for cellphone talking

Now, after reading that, I'm sure you have 2 questions: 1) Why did it take 16 hours for someone to do something about it? If I had been on that train, I would've said something after 15 minutes.; and 2) Whose cellphone battery lasts 16 hours? Who can even talk for 16 hours without going hoarse?

She's lucky that wasn't an east coast train...someone might've strangled her.

[Fool In The Rain 60]

The one good thing about mobile phones are people with Mental health Issues, can put their ear phones in and talk away to them selves without drawing attention, must be a great comfort to them as nobody takes any notice.

[TypeO]

People are dying. Texting while driving should come with a 10K fine and 2 weeks in the clink.

Texting has to be more dangerous than "a couple of beers", Where are the 'Mothers against TEXTING' people?

It is absolutely more dangerous, because instead of not seeing and responding to the road as well, you aren't even looking at the road.

Might as well be driving with a blindfold on.

We just lost a girl from my son's High School on Valentine's Day this year.

She ran into the back of a delivery truck sitting at a red light.

At the scene, police reported there were NO skid marks.

50+ miles an hour and never even saw the truck, the red light, or anything else.

It was immediately apparent she most certainly had to be texting, and the later report confirmed it.

They now have her picture on a banner in the HS parking lot reminding kids not to text and drive - "Remember Brooke."

What really bothered me though?

Her mom posted to her Facebook page from the accident scene to say her daughter was dead.

At the bottom of the post showed the time of the post (about 10 minutes after the reported time of the accident) "via Mobile Web."

It seems texting was such an integral part of her life as well that she felt obliged to share immediately via social networking.

Sadly, half the responses thought she must have been somehow joking.

Personally, speaking and forming coherent sentence fragments would seem beyond my utmost powers at a time like that.

Sharing it on Facebook/Twitter/whatever would simply never even occur to me.

[FireOpal]

My favorite is people who have "suddenly" discovered speakerphone, and walk down the middle of a sidewalk or aisle holding the phone out in front of their face and speaking (usually more loudly than if used normally) directly into the face of the phone like a walkie-talkie.

Several people in my office have speaker-phone syndrome as well (with land lines as well as cell phones), i.e. playing them at such a high volume that people in the next office over can hear every word. What is their problem? I think cell phones in particular have made people more rude and possibly more narcissistic.

[PerpetualMotion]

The one good thing about mobile phones are people with Mental health Issues, can put their ear phones in and talk away to them selves without drawing attention, must be a great comfort to them as nobody takes any notice.

See post #7 above.

Only the clueless wouldn't take notice.

Oh wait, that IS most people.

[betteremily]

Her "just a minute" was actually several minutes, and then she didn't even apologize for making me wait. After I finally found the item I needed to purchase and was then making my payment, I delayed giving the clerk the money. The woman seemed perplexed as I just stood there without getting out my money or credit card to pay. When she asked me "are you paying with credit?" I said, "just a minute I'm almost done." I then just stood there for a full minute staring at her without saying anything and then said, "there, how does it feel to be disrespected, ignored, and your time wasted?"

I don't even think she connected the dots in her mind. We are surely doomed.

Thanks B.H., one for the sane people.

I despise cell phones. I get a quite a load of shit for not owning one. I don't like talking on the phone anyway.

A condensed list of grievances:

-I too work in customer service. I see people walk through the door, reach for their cell phone, make a phone call and hang up as soon as they've payed their check, all in an attempt to avoid human interaction. ? I don't get it.

- my co-workers cannot work without constantly checking their phone.

- It's a damn tracking device. You're expected to be at everyone's beck and call at all times. It's unlike the home phone. You can get away with not being home. You can't get away with being away from your phone.

- Like Steve, I too hate these people who are in public places and thrust their personal conversations upon you, it's hugely an invasion of personal space. It's ear pollution, is what it is!

- More recently, my biggest complaint has to do with my friends. To me, there's nothing more rude than when you're having a conversation with someone and they're having they're own little text party, thus, not hearing a fu*king word you say!

[MrZoSo]

And sure enough...Here we go

Death by texting

Death By Texting: Michigan Man Gets Just 30 Days for Killing Grandmother

Anti-texting laws not tough enough, say prosecuters and police

Posted: May 23, 2011 1351 comments A A A Print this page|EmailShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on DiggShare on Lifestream

Some lawmakers say the penalties under texting-while-driving laws aren't harsh enough (mrJasonWeaver, Flickr)

by: David Kiley

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from this AuthorA Lapeer, Mich., man who police say caused a fatal crash while texting and driving has been sentenced to just one month in jail and 12 months of probation. It was the first case of its kind since the state passed a ban on texting while driving last August.

Some lawmakers say the penalties under texting-while-driving laws aren't harsh enough, and need to be changed. Penalties for drunk drivers who cause a fatality are much harsher -- some states include a four-year minimum prison sentence and a permanent driver's license suspension.

Awareness of the dangers of texting-while-driving seem to be climbing, yet full appreciation of the problem has a long way to go. While most drivers see the moral hazard of driving while intoxicated, too few still think that checking email or answering a text while operating a motor vehicle falls into the same category.

Forty-one-year old Jerry Joseph pleaded guilty in April to a moving violation causing the death last November of 78-year-old Irene Paquin of Attica Township, Mich. Paquin, a grandmother, was the passenger in the car driven by her 81-year-old husband Paul. The Paquins were broadsided by Joseph's car.

Phone records obtained by the police revealed that Joseph was texting seconds before the impact.

"Our investigation, we believe, showed that texting was a contributing factor to the person failing to stop at the stop sign," said state police Lt. Patrick McGreevy at the time Joseph was charged.

Police departments have been in favor of tough texting-while-driving laws. "It [texting] takes away three things from the driver," McGreevy told Michigan news website www.mlive.com. "It takes away the visual because you have to look at the cell phone, it takes away the manual because you have to use your hands and it takes away the cognitive because you have to think about what you are doing, what you are texting."

In addition to jail time and probation, Joseph will also have to pay more than $5,000 in fines and restitution.

Despite the seemingly unjust outcome and light sentence, Lapeer County Prosecutor Byron Konschuh said the sentence handed down to Joseph was fair under current law. "It was a fair sentence under the law that we have at this time, the moving violation causing death, which texting and driving falls underneath, is a one year maximum," Konschuh said, although he'd like to see texting-while-driving penalties toughened up.

Despite plenty of academic research demonstrating that texting while driving can be just as dangerous, or more so, as drinking and driving, a recent poll shows that most teens simply don't think that's the case. State Farm sponsored a poll conducted by Harris Interactive last Fall in which 14- to 17-year-olds were asked whether they thought they would die one day if they regularly text and drive. Only 35 percent strongly agreed with that statement. Meantime, 55 percent of teens think that drinking and driving could prove deadly.

Konschuh says the statistics he has reviewed shows that texting and driving is about three or four times more dangerous than operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs when operating a motor vehicle. He is trying to get the penalties stiffened in Michigan: Causing a serious injury would be a five-year felony and causing death would be a 15-year felony, Konschuh said of his notion of just punishment at the sentencing hearing or Joseph.

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is vocal supporter of tougher punishment on driving texters. LaHood, in Illinois for a summit with government leaders last month, noted that distracted drivers in 2009 caused at least 5,500 deaths and 450,000 injuries. He believes those numbers are much lower than the actual totals.

LaHood says 30 states have outlawed texting while driving-- and eight have banned hand-held cell phone use by drivers.

He called for stringent laws and consistent enforcement against distracted drivers.

"That's the reason I call this an epidemic, because we all own these and we all think we can use these any time any place and anywhere and it's just created a lot of bad behavior behind the wheel of a car," he said.

[Jahfin]

[Strider]

As far as I'm concerned, it's a way of thinning the herd by getting rid of all these zombie idiots clogging the streets.

Edited May 25, 2011 by Strider

[Electrophile]

The best thing that ever happened was NC passing a law making it illegal to text and drive. Finally got my sister to stop; she nearly got into two fender-benders since we've been here because of that.

[Jahfin]

As far as I'm concerned, it's a way of thinning the herd by getting rid of all these zombie idiots clogging the streets.

Except when they kill unsuspecting people that actually have their eyes on the road and aren't attempting to do everything but drive when they're out on the road.

[Fool In The Rain 60]

See post #7 above.

Only the clueless wouldn't take notice.

Oh wait, that IS most people.

Not everyone is as lucky as you, some of us are a sandwhich short of a picnic,