April 4, 2006
Cell gabbers annoy almost everyone
Even cell phone users get irritated at others who yak on their portables about their personal business in public. An AP-AOL-Pew poll found the offended don't think they are among the callers who get on other people's nerves, writes ABC News.
Most cell users find their phones very useful, with half keeping them on all the time. But almost nine in 10 say they encounter others using those phones in an annoying way. Only 8 percent of cell users acknowledge their own use of cell phones is sometimes rude.
More than two-thirds of cell phone users say it would be hard to give up their portable.
The poll also found:
28 percent admitted they sometimes don't drive as safely as they should because they are using a cell phone and 36 percent said they are sometimes shocked at the size of their service bill.
The bulk of cell users use it traditionally as a portable phone. But cell phones increasingly include built-in cameras, MP3 players, games and computers with the Internet and e-mail.
Young adults and minorities are drawn to the multiple uses of a cell phone. They are more likely than older adults and whites to send text messages, take pictures, use the Internet and play music with their cell phones.
If those trends continue, the cell phones' role will change dramatically.
Only one-third of U.S. cell phone owners use text messages a practice immensely popular in Europe and Asia. Two-thirds of cell phone owners between ages 18 and 29 send text messages one of many areas where young adults have a more versatile approach to the devices.
55 percent of young adults take pictures with their phones; 47 percent play games and 28 percent use the Internet, according to the poll.
"We think of them as mobile phones, but the personal computer, mobile phone and the Internet are merging into some new medium like the personal computer in the 1980s or the Internet in the 1990s," said Howard Rheingold.
Cell phones have changed the way people organize their time. Nearly half freed said they make most of their cell calls in off-hours when the minutes are free. Almost as many say they make cell phone calls to occupy time when traveling or waiting for someone.
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