1 post tagged “public manners”

What is it about people 25 to 30 years younger than me who'll take a mobile phone call on the train, at a normal speaking volume, and carry on a conversation as if they're shut inside a soundproof room? I couldn't give a rat's arse about how long it's been since whomever last visited or who's had a sprog, what it looks like, how so-and-so is doing at work or any number of sundry other mundane and revealing personal attributes of the caller & callee.

There was a time, undoubtedly before the advent of mobile telephones, that person-to-person conversations were sacrosanct and regarded as the sole property of the persons conversing. At no time did person A take a call from person B in the presence of person C. It just wasn't done. Yet, in today's world it seems to be accepted practice that when a mobile phone 'rings' (these things aren't really telephones, they're limited frequency SELCALL UHF radios) the holder/owner answers it as a slave would a master, then proceeds to conduct what almost always amounts to a highly personal and revealing conversation in the company of other human beings should they be in close proximity or not.

Surely, in the interests of not just public behavioural etiquette but prudent personal privacy, it behoves the owner of the mobile phone to at least switch it off when on public transport, so as not to burden, embarrass or otherwise annoy their fellow travellers. When I travel commuter class, I like to do so in commuter silence - apart from the noisy clatter and bang of the electric railway carriages. I don't need to hear other peoples personal conversations or details and certainly don't wish to. To me, it's akin to being forced to sniff the armpit of the daggiest passenger for the duration of the call. I don't need it, I don't want it and etiquette ought to decree that I oughtn't to have to suffer it.

If you're one of these thoughtless, insensitive arseholes, time you paid attention!