Vigilante etiquette justice over cellphone yapping in subway

The Village Voice reports on a lawsuit brought on following an incident in a subway where 60-year-old cop-turned-lawyer Clifford assaulted a 19-year-old student for talking on his cell phone.

The New York Post described the incident thusly:

Clifford waved his hand at the kid, snapped his fingers in the kid's face, and started cursing loudly, all agreed.

Clifford really blew a gasket - screaming "F- - -ing faggot!" - when the kid then suggested, comically, that Clifford himself not blow his nose and rustle his newspaper so loudly.

Clifford won his case, despite the judge's admonition that his vigilante style of etiquette justice is inappropriate (not to mention homophobic.)

This reminds me of a reverse incident that occured on a Japanese bus, when a young man observed that the middle-aged person in front of him was talking too loud on the mobile telephone. So he tapped the man's shoulder and asked him to keep the volume down. The man went bonkers. The video uploaded on YouTube has close to 2 million views.

'Manners police' hit Japan metros

Badly behaved commuters riding on Yokohama's public transport will soon be risking a dressing-down, reports the BBC.

"Newly appointed "etiquette police" or the Smile-Manner Squadron, will be asking travellers to turn down their headphones and give up their seats for their elders and betters.

The move comes amid growing concern that etiquette is losing its hallowed place in Japanese society.

This perceived lapse included failing to offer your seat to pregnant and elderly people, chatting loudly on mobile phones, applying make-up in public, and listening to music on "leaky" headphones.

A prime hang-out for violators was identified as Japan's jammed commuter trains.

... The mile-Manner team is mostly made up of over-60s, well acquainted with the standards of conduct associated with the "old Japan".

But many of these enforcers will be accompanied by younger bodyguards, should their etiquette advice - diplomatically given, of course - not prove welcome. "

President Sarkozy advised to watch his texting manners at Windsor

According to The First Post, French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been advised to behave in a more statesmanlike manner, starting with his visit to Windsor on March 26 as a guest of the Queen.

"No more Ray-Bans and jogging shorts, no more public kisses and cuddles with new wife Carla Bruni, and definitely no more texting on his mobile while in meetings with heads of state - all of these are high on the list of his advisors' new do's and don't's.

... Text-messaging has been one of his more shocking habits: he did it during an audience with Pope Benedict, and then again in a meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. "It is embarrassing and extremely discourteous," said a French diplomat unused to such casual behaviour from the president."

Cell Phone Sign From Soho Café Window. Be Warned.

A sign in the window of a Soho café. Spotted on Smart Mobs via Blackbelt Jones.

Hush booths

Spotted on Jan Chipchase - Future Perfect, pictures of a mobile phone booth at the SAS lounge of the airport of Copenhagen, which conveys a "subtle reminder of the social norms for this space".

Device Lets You Report Noisy Audience Members

CBS reports that Regal Entertainment Group, which owns several Chicago area theaters, is offering a device to enable audience members to rat on those talking/texting on their cell phones, or filming the movie.

"Using a device the size of a cell phone, certain patrons will be able to push a button to alert the management to somebody else's rude behavior, or even a problem with the movie.

The device, called a “guest response system,” has four buttons corresponding to problems; one is to report piracy if you see someone recording a movie with a camera.

The devices are now in use at just over 100 locations nationwide and could be headed for Chicago in the near future."

Why subway cars in Japan are more quiet than in the US

Why subway cars in Japan are more quiet than in the US.

A screen capture from the video of Nokia's Younghee Jung presentation entitled “Insight and Innovation” at the 2007 New Yorker Conference.

[Updated] Ten commandments of cell phone etiquette

InfoWorld has updated their original 10 Cell Phone Commandments. Amusing and to the point.

1. Thou shalt not dial while driving

2. Thou shalt not wear thy earpiece when thou art not on thy phone

3. Thou shalt not speak louder on thy cell phone than thou would on any other phone

4. Thou shalt not grow too attached to thy cell phone

5. Thou shalt not slam thy cell phone down on a restaurant table just in case it rings

6. Thou shalt not make the cell phone more important than the company thou art keeping

7.Thou shalt not leave the cell phone ringing just to show off the "cool" ringtones or refrain from answering for that same reason

8.Thou shalt turn off thy cell phone at funerals, weddings, yoga class, and anywhere it would be unacceptable to bring a screaming child

9.Thou shalt not have a message intro lasting more than 15 seconds

10.Thou shalt never answer your phone while you're in the bathroom.

Norway Study. Rude mobile phone use

A new survey of Norwegian mobile phone habits reveals that many people have received sex messages via their cell phone and even more take photos of people without permission. Aftenposten reports.

"The survey of 1,900 persons - carried out by Perduco for operator NetCom last November - shows that the spread of personal and often sensitive content via mobile phones and the Internet is widespread, and unsurprisingly, younger phone users are most irresponsible.

Thirty one percent of those under the age of 30 interviewed said they have used their phone's camera to take pictures of people who were not aware of being photographed. Only 13 percent of the total group surveyed gave the same answer.

Nineteen percent of mobile phone users under the age of 30 have received text or multimedia messages with sexual content, compared to 13 percent for the survey group as a whole."

Military cell phone regulations can keep calls waiting

Driving while using a cell phone is illegal on every Navy installation worldwide. But what about texting and chatting on foot? Stars and Stripes covers the military's position - which is more about common sense than imposing new rules.

"Sailors can wear a cell phone while in uniform , but walking and talking on it is generally discouraged unless you’re talking shop.

“There’s nothing officially prohibiting talking on the cellular phone in uniform (in fact the Navy's new dress code includes cell phone wear), but we tend to discourage it because it doesn’t project a crisp military image, it's largely a leadership call", said Yokosuka Naval Base commanding officer Capt. Greg Cornish."

Text-messaging teens asked to leave their seats at the movies

This past weekend, teenagers were escorted out of a movie theater in Arlington Texas, for reading a text message on their cell phones, according to the The Star Telegram.

“All we’re promoting is a distraction-free environment,” said Nate Reid, the theater’s general manager. He added that the policy has been enforced since the theater opened in 2002. “We have a very high teenage audience. It really is a problem with the teenage audience.”

“They had their phone on silent. It was a text message so no talking, no noise. A uniformed policeman said the theater has a very clear policy on no cell phones and they had to leave, walked them to the door and told them to not come back that night... Police were escorting teens out of the theater through the whole movie.”

The Cellphone Age

Jason Fry's three-year-old son may never answer a phone that's not ringing specifically for him. And he may go his entire life without changing his personal number. As cellphones replace landlines, telephone habits and etiquette are taking turns into the unknown. [WSJ]

A Flight Attendant’s 12 Tips for Cell Phone Use on an Airplane

Cell phone etiquette gets specific with a flight attendant's recommendations on how to behave on a plane, as "traveling can occasionally bring out the worst in people, resulting in the frequent “it’s all about me” syndrome. " [via Flyaway Café]

1. Don’t use your cell phone while boarding
2. Don’t stop in the middle of the aise to send a text message, or to continue your conversation
3.Don’t try to talk to the flight attendants about a problem while you’re talking on the phone
4. When you are asked to discontinue use, do so
5. Turn the power off when asked to do so
6. Take off your head set
7. Don’t shout
8. Consider the content of your conversation
9. Watch your language
10. Eliminate the “Can you hear me now syndrome”
11. Don’t try to talk over the background noises on the plane
12. Keep your cell phone handy if you want to use it taxiing in. That's OK.

Sydney Pollack Teams With Cingular to Promote Cell Phone Courtesy at the Movies

This July, a public service trailer directed by and starring Academy Award winning filmmaker Sydney Pollack in cooperation with Cingular Wireless, will debut in movie theaters nationwide. The trailer promotes of all things -- silence.

The scene opens with a man in the midst of conducting a personal phone call. Pollack then appears with script in hand, providing stage direction to the caller, who is clearly annoyed that the filmmaker has disturbed him. "Oh, I'm sorry -- is my directing interfering with your phone call?" asks Pollack, with more than a hint of sarcasm. "How rude of me!"

The trailer concludes with the following message: We won't interrupt your phone calls. Please don't interrupt our movies. Silence your cell phones. [via Cingular Media Room]

Stage Actor Richard Griffiths berates young man in audience for cell phone disturbance

Actor Richard Griffiths - up for a Best Actor Tony for playing an unconventional teacher in a British high school in "History Boys" and known for his roles as Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter films - berrated a young man in the audience, the third time a cellphone rang out in the theater.

Interrupting his performance, he clamored: "Okay, I am not going to compete with these electronic devices. You were told to turn them off by the stage manager, you were told it was against the law, and you heard two phones go off already before this.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," Griffiths continued, in a fit of ring rage. "Now I'm going to exit, and we're going to start this scene again, so tech stand by ... and I assure you if we hear one more phone go off we'll be in our right mind to quit this afternoon's performance ... you have been warned."

In a previous London show, " Heroes ", Griffiths asked the woman in the audience who's cell phone rang, to get up and leave - which she agonizingly did while the audience gave her a standing ovation.

Related article: - Actor wins ovation as he stages attack on phone offender

Arrested for asking for quiet in cinema

Pauline Clayton , an Australian tourist has been charged with assault after telling a Texas woman to stop talking on her mobile phone at the movies.

All Ms Clayton did was touch her arm to get her attention. The woman accused Ms Clayton of "invading her private space" and filed a complaint of assault because Ms Clayton had touched her.

[via The Daily Telegraph via digg]

Cell phones versus silence: commuter battle heats up

All Maggie Bergara wanted for Christmas was a quiet car, explains Record Online. As the woman began fantasizing about buying "one of those zappers" in October, she wondered: "Can we do this?"

The Federal Communications Commission has some objections. "If it were only that easy, we'd probably be buying them by the case," sighed Dan Brucker, a spokesman for Metro-North. Cell phone abuse is still among our top quality-of-ride complaints."

It's a crime to jam or block radio signals. And the prohibition extends to making, importing, selling or operating devices that do that. Remember "importing" when you're surfing the Internet and comparing prices.

The transit agencies say the actual number of complaints, however, has fallen over the past three years as cell phones have become commonplace and businesses of every description have devised policies regarding their use.

"The coolness of cell phones is so over," said Dan Brucker, a spokesman for Metro-North. "Cell phone abusers have become the new smokers. People feel empowered because there's a consensus now about how they should be used in public places so they're quick to confront and ostracize abusers."

"But I think it's a little harder to misbehave on the bus because the driver is right there," said Christine Falzone, at Short Line. "And our customers know if a passenger misbehaves, the driver can - and will - pull over to the side of the road and put the passenger off the bus. You can't do that with a train."

At NJ Transit, cell phone abuse is still enough of an issue among commuters that the agency is exploring the possibility of introducing quiet cars.

LG ties up with government for teaching people Mobile etiquette

With nearly every person having a mobile phone in Taiwan, it has become more of a nuisance to travel by public transport and see that most people have no basic mobile etiquette. [Phoneyworld]

"To tackle such problems and educate people about mobile etiquette, LG has embarked on a program along with the support of the transport authority in Taiwan.

The mobiquette movement has been based on 4 points and Lg hopes that people will respond positively to the same."

Steve Martin fights rude mobile phone users

According to Contact Music, funnyman Steve Martin has filmed a new public service announcement in a bid to urge filmgoers to turn off their mobile phones at the movies.

The actor recreates his recent role as bumbling detective Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther for the new big screen advertisement, which will be shown at cinemas across America this Christmas.

In the public service announcement, Martin's Clouseau complains when a cell phone starts ringing while he's watching a movie, and then realises it's his. He then switches his phone to vibrate and receives a shock every time it goes off.

The short ends with the line, "Don't be a Clouseau, get a clue. Please turn your cell phones off and refrain from talking during the movie."

Urinating while making a mobile-phone call

An entertaining piece wirtten by Stuart Jeffries for The Guardian, who ponders the merits of multitasking and recounts an incident involving a cell phone.

"It is one of the great lies of modern society that only women are good at multitasking. Consider what I saw in the gents last week. A man was urinating with one hand and making a mobile-phone call with the other. Lots of questions arise from this. Should he have told the person on the other end of the line what he was doing? Or should he have spared them? Could he do his flies up mid-call? How? Should he have washed his hands and then his mobile phone? Should I have frowned at him? Or applauded?"

... In their trenchant 2003 paper, Mobile Technologies and Boundaryless Spaces: Slavish Lifestyles, Seductive Meanderings, or Creative Empowerment?, two marketing professors, Nikhilesh Dholakia and Detlev Zwick, write: "According to the instrumental theory of technology, mobile technologies - what [Marshall] McLuhan refers to as electronic prostheses - promise opportunities for greater freedom, creativity, leisure and productivity by enhancing organic bodily functions."

Stuart Jeffries takse this to mean that you can go to the loo and remain in the loop.

Related article: - Flush cells in stalls

Actor wins ovation as he stages attack on phone offender

The actor Richard Griffiths has launched a furious tirade against mobile phones after ejecting a member of the audience from his West End play when her ringtone sounded for the third time. The Independent reports.

Griffiths, known for his roles as Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter films and Uncle Monty in the cult hit Withnail and I, was somewhat less than avuncular when his lines in the tense penultimate scene of the play Heroes were interrupted by the mobile phone call on Saturday.

He stopped mid-scene and asked: "Could the person whose mobile phone it is please leave?"

When he pinpointed the female offender, he addressed her directly, saying: "Is that it, or will it be ringing some more? "The 750 people here would be fully justified in suing you for ruining their afternoon."

As the woman left the auditorium at the Wyndham's Theatre, the audience gave Griffiths a standing ovation before the play, also starring John Hurt, continued."

nophones.com

nophones.com promotes good mobile manners with some common sense reminders on cell phone etiquette.

1. Learn mobile phone etiquette
2 Learn the basic features of your phone
3 Obey the bans and signs
4 Consider other people before using your phone
5 Consider the safety of yourself and other people while using your phone

Above driver bumper sticker comes from their store. Something which will hopefully catch on.

Hold the phone ... you shouldn't answer it if you're out on a date

An insightful article from The Guardian on how your cell phone can ruin your love life.

"Men find sending texts or taking calls during a dinner date the biggest turn-off of all, according to a new study.

... Nearly one in five men and women make more than 16 texts or calls before asking someone out on a first date. But once in a relationship, 68% of those surveyed said mobile phones interrupted quality time with a partner.

The study of the mobile phone habits of 1,000 people uncovered another paradox: although 56% of men and women believe people should not have their phones with them at all times and need not answer calls as soon as possible, more than one in three (35%) are suspicious when partners do not answer their phone and 78% say they feel frustrated."

Campaign Teaches Chinese to Mind Their Manners

Obiously Americans aren't the only ones who are plagued by cell phone rudeness. In advance of the 2008 Olympics, the government has embarked on a crash campaign to instill manners in the world's most populous country, according to Caton Rep.

"The effort has left government planners struggling to break some deeply entrenched habits, including public spitting and urinating, driving that evokes a “Road Warrior” set, and an inordinate fondness for cutting in line.

Among various initiatives are televised manners courses, slogans, billboards and local civilization contests.

Universities stage etiquette contests, slogans on village walls urge farmers to create a civilized society as neighborhoods compete in “courteous community” contests.

China is sparing no effort in the charm offensive. Daily TV talk shows, dramas and prime-time mini-spots provide lessons nationwide on everything from public fighting to the proper use of cell phones."

Mobile ring in Indian Parliament jangles speaker's nerves

The indelicate trilling of a mobile phone in the middle of his tributes to deceased Saudi Arabian King Fahd caused a furious Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to issue a stern warning to members Tuesday, reports the Indo-Asian News Service.

"Chatterjee, at the end of his tether with unruly behaviour from MPs in the lower house, stopped in the middle of his statement mourning the king's death to admonish the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP - "Please go out of here."

The embarrassed MP hurriedly attended to the phone, but not before the persistent ringing jangled Chatterjee's nerves a little more.

"I must warn members... if this happens in future, the instrument will be impounded," the speaker told the house in general, and the mobile-carrying member in particular.

Mobile phones are not allowed inside parliament, but recalcitrant MPs have forced the installation of jammers to stop the phone from ringing."

Related articles:

-- MPs banned from using electronic devices in Commons - Members of the UK Parliament who interrupt the session with text message noises or ring tones can expect to be admonished by the Leader of the House

-- Italian deputies drowned out in mobile phone clampdown - Pier Ferdinando Casini, speaker of the lower house of the Italian parliament, has ordered loudspeakers be installed, set at a very high volume, under all deputies' benches - to drown out mobile phone conversations among deputies...

-- Japanese lawmakers scolded for sending SMS in Parliament - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi scolded rookie lawmakers Thursday for reading comic books and sending text messages during legislative sessions.

-- MPs allowed to text on the bench House of Representatives Speaker Neil Andrew of The Parliament of Australia yesterday ruled in favour of MPs using cell phones for text messaging.

-- Video Phones Outlawed in SA Parliamentary Chambers - South African Speaker Peter Lewis warned MPs that they could lose parliamentary privilege by using camera phones in parliamentary chambers.

What Type of Cell Phone User Are You?

Always entertaining, another "What Type of Cell Phone User Are You?" quizz. From a press release from the Telephone Doctor published on Business Wire via mocoblog.

I'll let you read it and see which one of these categories suits you best. Are you a :

-- Spindle Head / Shouter / Secret Talker / Corporate Cliche Meister / Useless Call Maker / Crazy Talker / I Don't CARE Where I Am or Who You Are…I Have a Phone Call to Make or Take / Stalker / <“My Ringtone is Better Than Your Ringtone” / Generic Cell Phone Ringers / Cell Phone Driver / Right Hand/Left Ear / Considerate Cell Phone User

Related:

-- Cellphone Psychology: You Are Your Ring Tone

-- On ringtones, What melody did you pick?

-- What Does Your Ringtone Say About You?

-- Are ringtones an extension of your negative side?

-- What kind of person sets their phone solely on vibrate mode?

-- What your ringtone says about you

-- Ringtones can reveal more about yourself that you might think

-- Ringtones: The new currency of cool

Just a Minute, Boss. My Cellphone Is Ringing.

The workplace remains unsettled territory in the debate about cellphone etiquette, explains The New York Times.

Rebecca Hastings, from the Society for Human Resource Management, said: "Right now, cellphones are the cigarettes of this decade. It's an addiction. And just like cigarettes are banned from some places, so are cells banned. I think we'll see more organizations take a firmer line."

Office cell etiquette is still scattered partly because different people use the phone differently. Some people flaunt it at work to show how important they are. Others use it as an alternative communications network for the people they really want to talk to while the land line carries all the calls they want to screen out.

To an extent this is changing. As cells embed themselves deeper into people's lives, it is only natural that cellphone numbers have become less exclusive.

But this blurring of lines between business and personal use only makes cell use harder to regulate.

"Prior to the cellphone, the way we dressed communicated who we were in the workplace. Now, what ring tone someone has, how often the cellphone rings, how we respond to it when it rings. These are defining personality types in the office, which makes them harder to regulate than matters that aren't part of our bodies and psyches," commented Paul Levinson, author of "Cellphone: The Story of the World's Most Mobile Medium and How It Has Transformed Everything!".

In the absence of clear guidelines, the opportunities for abuse continue to expand. Optometrist Neil Gailmard said that two or three patients a day receive calls on their cellphones while he is treating them, despite a sign in his office asking them to turn their phones off. Dr. Gailmard is even more disturbed by doctors who take calls while seeing patients: "I think it's rude. But what actually happens in doctors' offices is very different from what should happen."

Devices like camera phones and BlackBerries are raising new questions about what is and isn't appropriate behavior at work.

July is Cell Phone Courtesy Month

Since 2002, Sprint has rallied the nation for Cell Phone Courtesy Month in July. But are things getting better?

“Unfortunately, no. Cell Phone Courtesy Month doesn't work if cell phone users aren't aware that they are not being courteous in the first place,” says etiquette expert Barbara Pachter. “A better idea would be to institute Cell Phone Jerk Assertiveness Month."

People need to stand up for themselves if they are disturbed by cell phone jerks—but they need to do it in the right way.
Here's Pachter tips to help people confront cell phone jerks:

1. KEEP YOUR COOL. If you can give a cell phone jerk the benefit of the doubt, you're less likely to lose your temper when dealing with one.

2. BE POLITE AND POWERFUL. Say something like, “Can you please lower your voice, your conversation is disturbing us.”

3. KEEP YOUR BODY LANGUAGE IN CHECK. You can say “Please” and “Thank you,” all you want, but don't clench your teeth or wag your finger.

4. USE A CPEG CARD. If you don't know what to say, or don't feel comfortable speaking up, hand the person a Cell Phone Etiquette Guideline (CPEG) card that says something polite and powerful like, “Hi. Can you please put your phone on vibrate? The ringing is disturbing us.”

5. LET IT GO. If it's a minor and passing annoyance, consider letting it go. If you're ever concerned for your safety, let it go.

(Press Release)

"The Theatre of the Barely Socially Acceptable"

These are recreated cellphone conversations overheard on the Washington, DC subways. Jeff Gates actually performs these pieces, which he calls "monodialogues".

"Every month I perform a monodialogs on the subway: a repertoire of mobile phone conversations culled from reality. Putting my finger to my ear (no one will look closely to discover I have no phone) I produce pithy and topical urbane conversations. When my audience ignores me I know I am a success. I give you Act 5.

(Thanks Jeff!)

Flush cells in stalls

Multitasking can be bad - when it involves talking on a cell phone while taking care of bathroom business, according to The New York Daily News.

"According to the latest issue of Sync amgazine, the digital age has produced several new bad habits - many of them included on a list of 35 things men should never do with tech products.

Any guy who's at the urinal on his phone, I KNOW it's not that important," said Tony Romando, Sync's editor in chief. The list, which hits newsstands Tuesday and has already prompted 500 letters, was compiled by Sync's staff and features things Romando said "we're all guilty of."

Phone etiquette, particularly rules about cell phones, made the list six times. Cell phone faceplates? Forget about it! You're also missing the point of a mobile if you call someone you can see".