Asian Observations – Cell Phones

I don’t own a cell phone. My excuse is that I have no need to be in contact with anyone 24/7 and if someone wants to contact me, leave me a message, I will be home sometime and return their call. I continue to live in my world and I quite like it there.

Because I do not own a cell phone, many things about them are a mystery to me. Like why, at the intermission of a concert or play, before even the lights come up there are hundreds of faces lit by the incidental light of the face owner’s cell. Is every one of those people expecting a message important enough that they might have to leave the play early, or is the play so bad that any message requiring them to leave would be gladly accepted? If they are not expecting an important message, why not wait till the end of the performance, there will be nothing done about the contents of the message anyway so who gives two hoots what it says. I’m fairly sure the cell phone is the tactile object people need to fulfill what ever need the cigarette used to soothe. They are definitely addictive, which is another reason I want nothing to do with them. 

Besides giving me a chance to rant, this post is about an observation I made while traveling Asia. There are as many folks there who own cell phones as there are in North America. I presume they are much cheaper in Asia because the people do not have as much disposable income as we have. So either they are giving up a meal a week or the cost of a phone and its operation is much less expensive.

What I noticed is how quiet the people talk on their phones. I could be standing right next to someone on the phone and, besides the fact I did not understand the language, could not make out what they were saying. In Canada when some is on their cell phone, no matter if they are on the street corner or at a funeral, everyone within 30M knows how their sister came through her pancreas operation and that she will still be able to bear a child. Frankly I don’t want to know about the guy’s sister and the distraction is usually interrupting a perfectly good day dream.

I think North Americans could learn a lesson from the Asians and drop their self important loud cell phone voices and leave the rest of us to our own world. I, for one, have no need to share my world with strangers that are probably not interested and do not need unsolicited interruptions of my own musings. I am not likely to own a cell soon but if for some reason I must acquire one I am going to remember where I am when talking and try to take a page from Asian manners and keep the call’s contents to the caller and me.