What is Cell Phone Courtesy Month and why should we care? It was created by Jacqueline Whitmore, an expert on manners, in 2002 as a way to help improve phone etiquette. As phones have become smarter, we have found ways to use them more and more in our every day lives. As a result, one can say we might be using them a bit too much and not always in the best ways.
For example, how many times have you been to a movie theater and halfway through the movie, someone’s phone starts going off, despite the numerous warnings given before the movie to silence or turn off phones? Or, how many times have you been hanging out with a friend but they are constantly on the phone and not paying attention to you? Or, do you have that one friend who has alarms and timers going off every five seconds? These examples and others can be classified as the exact opposite of phone use courtesy. We asked our team what some of their phone pet peeves were to help give an idea of what NOT to do with your phone:
- Alicia- Listening to music using phone speaker in a store. People do this...why???? This is literally why ear buds exist.
- Amy- Not saying bye when hanging up the phone!!
- Maura- Texting back with a simple K.
- Chris- People talking on speakerphone when in a restaurant.
- Marie- FaceTiming on speakerphone with the volume on blast in public!
- Jill- The ????????. The worst emoji ever. Use your words!
- Kellie - Calling someone instead of sending a text...
- Brenda - Really obnoxious phone rings (like music) and not answering it so it continues to play. If you're not going to answer, turn the sound off.
- Brett - Texting me while in the same room as I am.
- Alex I. - Having loud music, radio, or tv in the background while on a call! Like how am I supposed to hear you on a call when I can also hear the entire gameshow you're watching?!
- Jacob- One word text responses, especially when they were the ones to begin the conversation.
- Alex P. - When someone's phone goes off during a movie when at a movie theater. Like, come one! They even remind you before the movie starts to turn it off or silence it! There is no excuse!
- Wayne- Or how about talk to text and not paying attention to how it captured what you said so it's like a puzzle trying to figure out what they actually were saying.
- Deborah- When you text someone and they do not respond at all - even family.
- Nola- Talking on phone while driving!!!
- Amber- My biggest pet peeve is when someone is on their phones during school, jobs where you should be paying attention to who is talking.
- Nichole- When people are so focused on the YouTube videos/TikToks/movies/etc they are watching on their phone that they have absolutely no clue what is going on around them and ignore the people they are with.
Based on this feedback, we thought it would be fun to put together a little PSA in honor of Cell Phone Courtesy month. We thought playfully addressing some of these concerns could help highlight the importance of cell phone courtesy and if anything else, it would just be fun to put together and hopefully fun to watch. Enjoy!
Obviously, these are simply the opinions of our employees and everyone will have their own ideas of what they consider to be rude or obnoxious when it comes to using a phone or smart device, but these seem to be relatively universal among people of what is not particularly acceptable. In the end, use your best judgement and just be as courteous as you can with your devices this month. In fact, don’t stop there! Keep it going all year long as being courteous doesn’t go out of style!
