April 18, 2005
Cellphonies Dial F for fake cell phone calling
This is news to me. And wild. Apparently, according to this article from the NY Times, many people pretend to have cell phone conversations in public places.
"James E. Katz, a professor of communication at Rutgers University, says his classroom research suggests that plenty of the people talking on the phone around you are really faking it. In one survey Katz conducted, more than a quarter of his students said they made fake calls. He found the number hard to believe. Then in another class 27 of 29 students said they did it.
"People are turning the technology on its head," Katz said. "They are taking a device that was designed to talk to people who are far away and using it to communicate with people who are directly around them. Call them cellphonies."
Why they do it:
-- Some stage calls to avoid contact, whether with neighbors or panhandlers, co-workers or supervisors, Greenpeace canvassers or Girl Scouts.
-- Some do it to impress those within earshot, others so they don't look lonely. Men talk to their handsets while they're checking out women. Women converse with the air to avert unwanted approaches by men.
-- Camera phone shutterbugs fake being on the phone so they can get a good angle without looking suspicious.
-- And certain cellular vigilantes fake for the benefit of real callers who are oblivious to the rules of common decency.
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