Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Phones

I tell myself to be open-minded. People who want to use their cell phones in a public library are no more rude than the ones who let toddlers run wild, or those who leave trash and "Jobs Weekly" wadded up by the PC they used. Since I never took to mobile phones, they do seem to irritate me more. I just don't get it. Finally, Wired magazine suggests it's okay to be a cell phone outsider, in this article on reasons to ditch the gadget.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

People are rude pigs that can't push in their chairs either.

Lisa said...

OMG, Circ Goddess I just walked by our info desk and pushed in a chair!

Anonymous said...

Are people just not home trained anymore or are we too nice that we let them get away with stuff like that?

Lisa said...

Funny you use that phrase. While I was subbing, there were two phrases that I heard quite often in, er, rowdy classrooms. If I said something like "push in your chair" or "quit poking him" or "are you going to say 'please'?" to Kid A, Kid B might jump in and said "You gotta excuse her, ma'am, she ain't got no home trainin."

And that sort of makes sense from the point of view of a kid trying to keep any kind of instruction from happening.

What I never quite got were the random and apparently false claims of kinship. If I felt compelled to say "quick kicking each other" or "each of you sit in your own chair" or "don't braid her hair in class," I often got "but she my cousin" in return.

Whatever. Just quit it.

As for being nice in the lib, I try to get every single cell phone peep, I ask half a dozen people a day to turn down the sound coming into their earphones 'cause we don't all want to hear it, and I can have annoying passive-aggressive type moments. I'll push a chair in behind a patron only seconds after he's abandoned it, or snap up printer receipts balanced on the printer table while the patron is still there.

If a young person is less than about 15 and says "I need my card number," about half of the time I'll say with chipper smile, "I'm waiting for a 'please.'"

About the only behavior change is grown people who are regular patrons do learn to take their calls outside.

Anonymous said...

you subbed? As a teacher? i am learing more and more about you all the time ;)

(i hate people)