Focus: Cell phone behavior for a night out. Alt-focus: Is this a good policy or a bad policy? For me, I fucking detest cell phones of any and all shapes. They turn a good bar debate into a contest of Google-fu. You can't have a conversation without being interrupted by some twat having to answer a text or a call and no one I know is able to convincingly carry on two conversations at once. Worse, at least a few dozen assholes forget that when you're on the phone other people can hear your conversation. They get angry at you for "eavesdropping" when they are yelling into a phone and they act as if going outside to talk on the phone is simply beneath them. I can think of nothing less respectful that sitting at a table with people and having your nose in a phone the entire time. If it's that damned important, go outside and handle it. A 45-second phone call outside is preferred to a dozen slow texts anyway. One girl was at a bar screaming at her boyfriend and my hero, the bartender, hoses down her phone from the bar and tells her to fuck off. He was probably tipped an extra $5 by every person in attendance.
This is why I refuse to have a cell-phone. The people who need to know where I am, do. I did have one for a while, especially carried it on me when my wife was pregnant with each of our 2 children, and she still has one. I guess I'm just not important enough to "require" one.
Wow, fuck that picture and the assholes that would put up something like that. I use my phone for calls and the very rare text, and I probably average less than 10 calls per week. The idea that I should toss my cell phone in a basket because the presumption is that I'm like every other rude asshole who has their cell phone glued to their hand and ear is fucking insulting. I'll keep mine in my pocket - where it is 99% of the time when I'm out and about anyway - and you and your basket can piss off.
This. It's not the phone that's the problem, it's the dumbass holding it. Who the hell would agree to put their phone in that basket? Fuck that noise.
Neither of you are the intended target of this basket. It's a wake up call to the people (early 20's, self-important twats) on their phones constantly, not the ones who mostly keep it in their pocket. Plus, I really doubt they 'require' that your phone be stored there, especially if you never use it. Personally, I like the idea, if it's at a house party where people are mostly just coming and going to the same place. Solid social interaction makes the party that much more enjoyable. I've seen many good conversations and many good parties hampered by this very device. Would never really work for the bar scene though, since it seems people are always meeting you at the next bar and you'd like to be able to actually meet up with them.
I've thought of this time and again and I finally realized what it is people that have grown up in a world without cell phones are missing. Freedom. You are never out of contact. Sure, you could turn it off and be out of contact and you can even ignore it, but it's rare that people do that unless they have to. Even I don't do that very often. But, when I was a kid and walked out the door at night to go out, or at any other time for that matter, no one could find me if I didn't want to be found. For any of you cell phone addicts out there, try it sometime. It's a wonderful feeling.
I tend to look at this as an instance of killing the messenger because you don't like the message. It's really annoying when you're with someone and they're more interested in their phone than you, because that means that they're more interested in the person on the other end of their phone than you. If the person you're with is polite and fake, but doesn't really want to be hanging out with you, is that better or worse than if they make their disinterest in you obvious? The above accounts for 99% of cell phone situations at parties. The other 1% - timely logistical calls or emergencies - are forgivable and understandable if the person apologizes and explains why they're answering. Is there any rule of etiquette that can't be divined by the simple principle of self-interested consideration for others?
The worst part is the facebooking on mobile phones. At a very basic level, I'm happy to let people know where I will be out having a good time, whether it be through facebook with a simple message before I leave informing people to call me if they'll be in a nearby place, or just texting certain people. But all of this can be done quickly before I've even left or on the way. I can't stand people updating their facebook every 5 minutes to check everyone in at the pub we just arrived at. It looks even more ridiculous when there's 15 plus people there, because that has to take up at least a few minutes of their time, and it just looks like they're wanting people to know they have an exceptional amount of friends or something.
My cellphone is from 2004. It weighs 16 pounds, whenever it rings it makes the right side of my body numb, and it actually has a rotary dial. I was watching an episode of MASH and they used my phone to call in for backup. A couple years ago someone tried to mug me for my phone, and I beat them to do with it and it still worked. The antenna is 2 feet long. Stereotypical 80s bankers ask to borrow it all the time. What gets me is everyone playing Words With Friends IN THE SAME ROOM. That is so douchy it's hilarious. I can't hate too much because my buddy always asks me to help him win when we're at the bar. My ex-roomie was the biggest cunt with his phone. He was always late on rent, bitching about his pay from work, yet upgraded his phone twice a year. "I like toys." He'd sit on the couch playing with it constantly, bragging about "jailbreaking it." Every phone, like everyone's computer, was inferior even if they didn't f'n care. If he got a call he'd sit there, no matter who else was in the room or if you were watching something on TV, for the duration of the conversation. Fat, useless, pussy whipped, sharting, fatty fucker had zero respect for anyone. I hope he gets burned near death, spends 6 months in the hospital in grueling pain and recovery, then contracts some sort of disease that makes him shit himself to death in front of his mother. What were we talking about again? Oh, phones. If you're a cunt, you'll be a cunt with a phone. I like to think most folks will be sensible with it. I cannot imagine being on a date with someone where you have to jockey for position with their f'n I-phone. I'd probably walk out, leave them with the check.
I had a girlfriend before my current one that was constantly on her fucking phone. We would be in a movie theater, she'd be texting away. We'd take a walk, she was constantly checking Facebook or whatever. Whenever she laughed at something from it, I'd ask her what was so funny and she give me an angry look and tell me it was "private." She was probably cheating on me, but I don't care; it only lasted a few months. CJ is right that shitty people are exponentially shittier with their phones, a.k.a. hand-held vanity. Her only saving grace was that she was pretty. Well I thought she was pretty, all my friends thought she looked like Jeff Goldblum.
Everyone is missing the most important part of this picture, which is that if I saw a basket full of expensive smart phones, I would be compelled on principle to steal the entire thing.
Whoever wrote that note is an idiot, they should have just sent out a blast text to all those people telling them to put their phones in the basket. At my bar there are not many phone conversations in the bar, and if there happens to be one that is the least bit annoying I turn the music up to 11.
Spoiler I love how anytime on this board someone says something is a problem, and within two posts someone is saying I NEVER DO THAT! "Focus: People eat food." 1st Post: "I never do that! I only drink and absorb nutrients through the sunlight!" I think a lot of you are missing the point. There are people who are addicted to their phones. If Phone-Addict (PA) is with person 1 in the flesh, they are texting person 2. If PA is with person 2, they are texting person 1. A lot of times it is just not the person, they just have to be attached to their phone. If you're at a party full of people, why the fuck are you checking FB to talk to the people that aren't there? The issue is the constant priority to whoever is on the other end of the phone. I also think that due to having so much information and so much data, that without it they just feel lost. Not having a phone seems to trigger a CMS (Can't Missout Syndrome). That is what that basket is trying to get at, and I've been to a party with that basket. No one had their phone stolen and it was a damn good party. People are engaged and using their minds more, thumbs less. You're end up talking to people and unless you have a raging superiority complex you'll find something in common with someone leading to a better time than expected.
Are you my ex-wife? Anyway, when I'm out partying, I usually leave my phone in my car. It's a lot harder to lose it that way.
Please. Of all the people on here, you're among the most likely to have lost a car after a night of heavy drinking.
I find having no friends greatly reduces the urge to use a cell phone in public. Seriously though, the majority of the time I'm using my phone at a bar/party/etc I'm trying to see where I can go next, which means I've already mentally checked out of wherever I am. I have to be pretty actively bored to start texting people.
Since I work at a bar, I see a lot of people in social situations. Most people, even those that swear they're 'not that type of person' use cell phones an insane amount. I think the sign is great. People have become so accustomed to cell phone use, the bar for what is 'a lot of use' has changed. Next time you go out, leave your phone at home and count the number of times the people you are 'with' look at their cell phones and keep a tally. I would suggest the results will stun you. People are on these things so much we don't even notice it as much anymore.
Meh. I have a cell phone, I text rarely, and I HATE talking on the phone like none other, so most of the time I use it looking at this very website and that's about it. For those of you who share scorn with cell phone assholes such as I, we have something to look forward to: The Kesslar Syndrome. You see, mankind has over 100,000 useless objects floating up there in space that's eternally locked into our gravitational pull and we keep adding to this immovable pile every time we send something into space, from space shuttle feces to old obsolete satellites to a lost American astronaut glove, if you can believe that. The Syndrome is that eventually these objects will collide with each other, and at THAT insane speed they will break into even smaller objects and cause even MORE collisions, eventually taking out the satelites that control the cell phones. Once that happens, we'll have no choice but to talk to the actual living person that's actually standing in front of us, and underaged teenagers will be forced to send Polaroid photographs of their genitals to each other through the mail. Ah, The Good Old Days.
This has been a big problem in our group of friends for me for a while. I'm not asshole-ish enough to put a box right next to my door for everyone to put in there YET, but I am at the point where I will tell certain people as they come in that I would find it incredibly offensive if they spent all night on their phones. Now these are people I've known for 10 years +, and us getting older, we don't have much time to hang out anymore. THAT is what pisses me off the most. Here is someone I've considered a great friend for a long time, we haven't seen or talked to each other in a month so I invite them over for dinner and games and they spend the next 3 hours playing draw-some (which is the newest game that gets on my nerves) with the person they just left. The thing is, it's always the SAME PEOPLE that just can't seem to wrap it around their heads that I do not like it. They seem surprised when I say "I think that's rude, you should stop." I'd never force someone to put their phone away, but if your going to be inconsiderate and rude by not conversing back and forth with me, I'll just tell you to leave and I'll invite someone else over who actually enjoys my company.
<a class="postlink" href="http://theweek.com/article/index/223137/how-the-phone-stack-is-civilizing-dinners-out-with-friends" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://theweek.com/article/index/223137 ... th-friends</a> I think this is awesome. I hate having to basically audition for either my friends attention when were out at a bar, or my girlfriend when we're home. To summarize, you meet friends at a restaurant or bar, everyone stacks their phone face down, and whoever can't resist the urge to check their phone if it goes off, picks up the tab. Hope that text/picture/word with friends was worth it.