Confiscate the phones and make the world a better place

   The media is allowed to bring a cell phone to the Masters, but we have to bring it straight to the Media Center and we have to register it. We are not allowed to bring the phone onto the golf course, and we shouldn't be.

   One TV reporter left his phone in his shirt pocket, however, and walked onto the course. A security guard saw it. Even though the phone was turned off, the security guard escorted the man back to the Media Center and threatened to take his badge. Lose that badge, that credential, and neither you nor the company for which you work will get it back.

   A meeting was scheduled with a Masters' official. Had the phone been turned on, the credential would have been seized. But the reporter was given a warning, a lecture and a second chance.

   I wish the rule applied elsewhere.

   Bring a telephone into a movie theater and, if it's turned on, you get kicked out. Talk loudly on a cell phone in a restaurant and, oops, see you. Speak into a phone at the gym and, unless you're in the lobby or in a hallway, your membership is revoked.

   I hear people in my gym, often on ellipitcal machines, get on the phone and say a variety of things, among them, "I'm working out."

   Not really.

Comments

[J. Brown]

Except for the fact that Packman would not be able to go on and on and on about how he got a telephone play-by-play from Jim Nance.

[greg]

so true. half the people in the gym are doing absolutely nothing.

[DeLaQuest]

Tom,

Quite frankly, you sound like a Nazi.

Who cares if people want to talk on the phone while they "work out"? I used to work at a gym, and we had far more pressing things to worry about than who was using a cell phone. It's hard enough for gyms to get enough members to make money....Now they gotta scare off everybody who wants to use a cell phone there?

And what movie attendant gets paid enough to warrant having to kick people out for having their cell phone on?

And how do we determine if someone is talking too loudly in a restaurant? Set up a decibel machine at each table?

[TheBrain]

DeLaQuest - you are the one with a problem. You must be either REALLY young or have some warped sense of self importance to (a) think you need to be on a phone all the time and (b) think that people actually care about what you have to say! Cell phones are way too common in many areas of life and are an annoyance that should be turned off. No one is that important they need to be talking on a cell phone in a social setting. If it is an emergency step outside. You will hear better and all the other people will appreciate it. Of course you sound like the self centered type that don't care about annoying everyone around them! BTW, I'm a 30 year IT professional that has been in senior corporate management for many years and uses my phone a lot - however, you set it on vibrate and don't carry on a conversation around a bunch of strangers who don't want to hear you talk! Learn something buddy.

[John W.]

Cell phones don't annoy people. People annoy people.
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Observer Web Site, Internet -- It's not like this is America or anything, right?

On a less sarcastic note, I do believe cell phones are useful in the rare emergency situation. For that reason alone, their ubiquity is a net benefit to society.

Sure, there are morons who are going to annoy you with their lack of etiquette. But those same morons, in the absence of mobile phones, are going to talk to the person next to them in a theater or on a golf course and are still generally going to find ways to be obnoxious.

I usually agree with Tom, but I hate it when someone tries to tell me what I can and cannot do. Punish people after they actually do something wrong (like allowing their phone to ring), not before. That's the only fair way.

[geroge]

cell phones are useless thugs and wannabe movie stars, get rid of the phones and use only landline devices, i never own a cell phone in my life and never will, too many people of color have cell phones, whu would i want to do what a black or mexican do..

[Jim]

People on cell phones in public are really very disrespectful. I almost hit a women with my car who was not watching where she was walking cause she was too busy gabbing on the phone. They do not follow directions of signs saying turn off all cell phones--do not talk on cell phone and obviously they do not heed these signs and insist on gabbing away for all to hear in a doctors office full of people. Better yet how about trying to turn a corner with hand on the wheel of your car with the left hand when they are holding the cell phone with the right hand. These people are dangerous--ban hand held cell phones.