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:
People are rude pigs that can't push in their chairs either.
OMG, Circ Goddess I just walked by our info desk and pushed in a chair!
Are people just not home trained anymore or are we too nice that we let them get away with stuff like that?
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.
you subbed? As a teacher? i am learing more and more about you all the time ;)
(i hate people)
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