Cell phones. They have become an integral part of out lives the same way clothes and cars have. Several decades ago, people did not use cell phones, and they did not imagine there would ever be a need for one. Sure, it would be a convenience, but a necessity? Today, people could not imagine life without a cell phone. Their use has been so hammered into our lives, that there is not hope of changing it now. Take a walk through a college campus any day and you will see about ¼ of the student population on a cell phone. I was thinking earlier this week how it would be interesting to count the number of students on cell phones as they leave the classrooms. It seems that as soon as class ends, students whip out their phones and either make a call or text someone. It must be drudgery to sit in class for 50 minutes and not be able to talk to a friend. I remember in my FYS class, my professor was talking about students on cell phones, and he said that many of them were actually talking to their parents. I do not know if this is valid or not, but it is something interesting to think about.

What about the students from our parent’s generation? They did not need to constantly talk to people on the phone. They survived college life without texting and talking on the phone while walking to class. It makes me wonder what they did with all their free time. They did not have the Internet, limited access to television, and no videogames. They must have…studied! What a concept. However, I am drifting away from the main point.

Today, we have become too dependent on our cell phones. There are certain places that phones are verboten. They are not to be used in theaters, in the classroom, in some finer restaurants, and at gatherings such as church. However, we have found a way around that. Instead of talking, we can now type short messages to our friends silently. Whew, what would happen if that was forbidden as well? Teachers and professors try their best to prohibit cell phone use in their classes, but it really does not have much of an impact. Students will continue to text and classes will continue to be disrupted.




Because cell phones have become such an integral part of 21st century society, I think that some standards should be set regarding polite use of the devices. Of course, most, is not all, phones have a vibrate function in an attempt to minimize disturbance when a call is received. However, we all can hear the noise anyway, and we know what is going on. Sure, try to cover it up and press on the phone with your hand, we still know it is ringing.

There are also those people who receive a call and talk way too loud. Maybe they think the person on the other line cannot hear them, but we can all hear them. It has a way of ruining dinner when you can hear a person’s conversation from across the restaurant. When a person is talking on the phone, nothing else seems to matter to them. It is if the world around the phone shuts down, and the only interesting thing is what is happening on the other side.




The final problem with cell phone use is that people will drop what they are doing just so they can answer the phone. They could be with another friend or relative, but as soon as the phone rings, that call is immediately more important than the person in front of them. Of course, the call could be very important. There could be some sort of emergency, but emergencies have happened for thousands of years. What happened in the 1950’s when there was an emergency? What if there was a flat tire or an automobile accident back then? People still got along fine and we can too. It is true that cell phones have their uses and benefits, but their overuse is becoming a great harm to our society today.