Mind Your Cell Phone Etiquette

Cell Phone Etiquette

Mobile phones have become an indispensable part of our lives. A decade ago it was probably a status symbol or a part of one’s wish list. Today it is an absolute necessity like food, clothing and shelter. It may be apt to redefine the basic necessities as “Roti, Kapda and Mobile”. Sometimes, even the most well mannered people are not good at cell phone etiquette.

Cell phone etiquette is important in public spaces, where one loud talker can disturb a large number of people. It is not other people’s responsibility to cope with your mobile phone use; it is your responsibility to use your mobile phone inoffensively.

When using cell phones, one must respect public and personal space, other’s privacy concern and similar such things. Cell phone etiquette is getting more and more attention now a days. Let us look at a few important points to keep in mind when you are using cell phones – either at work, home or other circumstances.

Basic Cell Phone Etiquette

1. Keeping it Brief

This is important at all times. There are cases where you may want to talk longer with an old friend, near or dear ones, etc. However, in public places or in office its important to keep the conversation brief and crisp. If you are too busy you can request the caller to reach you at a different time or say that you will call back later.

What if its an urgent or important call? In this case you can speak in a lower tone if its possible. Else you can find an empty room or go out to a calmer place and speak freely. If you talk loudly in public place or office you will be creating nuisance.

2. Personal Matters

This is almost similar to the first point, but more to do with the content of the discussion.

For instance Mr.Kakde, a banker gets a call from his wife to buy some groceries, and they also discuss about their outing plans on Feb 14th.

Two issues here – one, several people in the office including customers make a mockery of his grocery list and secondly, the whole world doesn’t have to know about his outing plans on Valentines. To add fuel to the fire he also keeps some of his subordinates waiting to get some transactions approved.

People with good cell phone etiquette will not call or receive calls in places like library, hospital, theater, airplane or while driving. Talking loudly on public transport is considered rude, too.

Lesson: Keep personal matters away from office or public view as far as possible. A few conversations is okay, but not to the extent of broadcasting your private matters to all.

This example may appear too exaggerated, but if you observe people around you will be convinced.

3. Loud Ring Tones

Being sensitive to your surroundings is important. I’ve seen many people playing music loudly or watching TV with high volume (sound). When it comes to cell phones even people who are decent otherwise has jarring ring tones, cranky message beeps, etc.

Some youngsters also like to have the latest Bollywood hit tunes, ‘Kolaveri Di’ tone, etc. I’m not for or against this because it depends on your personality as well as where you use it. When you are in office, public places or in meetings these should be avoided or atleast minimized.

I remember an incident related to conference calls. It was normal to hear ring tones or other noises during calls with our own colleagues abroad. But once we had a call with a client as well as our Business Development Manager in US. The client representative also demonstrated software and its workings.

All of a sudden one of my colleague’s cell phone rings with some pop and rockfish music tone which was jarring as well. After finishing the client call we had an internal discussion where we had a good laugh at this guy and the incident. Luckily nothing serious happened.

So when you are meeting a client or important business people follow this:-

  • To be safer keep your phone on vibrating mode. But if you want to have a ring tone then have a standard or regular ring tone (filmy, rocky, devotional, comical, etc are a strict NO)
  • Keep the volume low
  • Keep the conversation brief (say that you are in a meeting- the caller will understand)

4. Be aware of people around you

Most people talk on the phone as well as speak to their colleague simultaneously – in a situation where both the conversations are not connected.

For instance if you get a call when you are explaining some work to a colleague you can do one of the following:

  1. Politely tell you colleague that you will come back after the call (or)
  2. Excuse yourself from colleague and finish the phone conversation briefly and later come back to work (or)
  3. Tell the caller that you are busy or in a meeting and focus on the work in hand

To cut it short either attend the call or your colleague effectively. Don’t try to juggle between the two and create nuisance for people around. This is not Multi-Tasking but rather Messy-Tasking.

5.Stick to Decent Language

Avoid offensive language in public at all costs. Not only does it give a bad impression of you, but also might negatively influence people around such as colleagues, children, customers, etc.

The offensive words are used to scold, shout and scream at someone which is one case. The other case is where you use offensive language to describe a situation, experience, etc. Both of these have to be avoided in public.

In worst circumstance when its unavoidable to use harsh words, try to move to a neutral location or place and do that. You also want to keep your reputation intact in any case.

6. Affection

The new culture which is common among young people in India is ‘public display of affection’. This particularly is true of most young people in relationships. Some examples are:-

  • Can you kiss me on phone if you really love me
  • I want to hear those three words from you.

The drama queen does not understand that the person on the other side is probably busy or doing something important or amongst other people. The other trick is “If you are with friends, so what…..after all we are married….they won’t mind”. This is absolute stupidity and nonsense.

You don’t have to prove your love story to the whole world like Bollywood heroes – you will appear like a clown if you do that. While the heroes earn crores for their acting you on the other hand will be seen as someone who is a clown or a puppet at home.

Harmful Effects of Cell Phones

There has been a lot of talk about the harmful effects of cell phones. But the one which received a lot of attention is the impact of electromagnetic fields which can cause diseases including cancer.

There were several other possible risk stated by medical experts, but one aspect that most people miss out on are the high risk involved in using mobile phones while driving, walking, etc. Let me give you a few examples where you need to avoid use of cell phones for your own safety or to avoid distractions and disruptions.

Avoid using cell phones under these circumstances

  • When you cross a road
  • While driving
  • When you are not in normal state (sleeping, get drunk, in the bathroom, etc.)

In the above cases you may not be able to respond immediately but can definitely talk or respond later after a few minutes or so.
Places where you need to judge and take a call:

  • When you are in public transport (bus, metro, auto, train, etc)
  • When you are eating
  • When you are busy at work or in a meeting

The above are few examples among the dozens that we see every day. Some statistics show that a majority of accidents in US are due to use of cell phones. The same trend is picking up in India too. Remember that using phone to talk or text while driving is sure way to disaster.

You can take the call later or gradually park your vehicle and talk. More than the risk of being caught you can cause an accident and risk your life as well as life of others. If you still take a call just tell them you are driving and cut the conversation short. Focus more on driving – the call is not important – You life is more precious than the conversation.

What kind of billion dollar deal will you lose by not taking the call when you drive? If it is really so important move aside, stop your vehicle and than talk and finish the matter. After this you can drive peacefully.

When you go out with friends or others just fix a meeting point where you can park your car and wait for others (this way you can avoid talking and driving simultaneously).

Conclusion – Cell Phone Etiquette

What we discussed is not new but simple basic cell phone etiquette. However, since we have an easy to use technology we tend to get carried away. In the days of fixed line some of the problems above never existed, but a wireless device changes all that.

You can definitely use mobile phones to make your life easier and to keep in touch regularly but try to be conscious of the people and environment around you. With apps and other features making them relevant to almost all areas of life, it’s no wonder we treat them almost like an extension of ourselves. Remember that the cell phone is not the problem; it’s the user’s lack of respect for others!!!

Read more about this at – Tips to Use Mobile Phones Effectively

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About the Author

Sridhar is a financial analyst and his work experience spans areas of financial analysis, modeling, valuation and research on companies, specific sectors, etc. Sridhar is an MBA graduate with Finance major from Maharishi Institute of Management.

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