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Entry 414, on 2006-10-26 at 14:06:20 (Rating 3, Comments)

I have recently read a tirade against mobile phone use by a prominent, local personality in a couple of separate sources. The person who was dismissing cell phones was Bob Jones, a local business leader, part time politician, and generally larger than life character. While he is entertaining, and I usually enjoy listening to him, its hard to take anything he says too seriously, in fact the less generous amongst us might suggest he's a bit of an ignorant, opinionated clown (but I didn't say that).

Anyway, the gist of his argument was that the cell phone is not a useful tool for business and professional people, because he prefers to talk to a receptionists or phone operator who can deal with a situation on behalf of the person he originally called instead of talking to the person himself on a cell phone or dealing with the lesser quality phone operators we have today (an alleged phenomenon he somehow links to cell phone use as well).

Well, I'm sick of people making a big deal out of cell phone use. They are just a tool, and a very useful one too. The biggest problem I have with communications is trying to contact people on land-lines when they aren't there. Cell phones reduce this problem significantly. And I need to be mobile to be able to visit clients, go down to the server room to fix a problem, etc. If people call my cell phone I know I'll still get the call. So that's my anecdotal evidence in support of cell phones, which beats his circumstantial generalisations on the topic!

I agree that there are situations when some people's use of cell phones is annoying. If you are in a meeting or conversation with someone and they embark on a lengthy phone discussion its generally poor manners (although it would depend on the circumstances, such as the importance of the call). Having an absolute rule of no cell phones like Bob does in his business is just ignorant. Of course, after considering Bob's opinions and attitudes in the past, I'm hardly surprised.

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