Etiquette: My smart Is Interfering With My iPhone


A few months ago I bought a smart car. They looked cool in Europe, they seemed like fun and its carbon pinky print nicely balances out the carbon footprint of my wife's Range Rover. The car is a blast to drive and has absolutely everything I need, and nothing I don't. But the thing is like a puppy. Everyone loves the car and everyone wants to talk about it. What is the mileage? You don't know the mileage? Is it electric? Where is the wind up key? There is really nothing wrong with the questions and besides not being able to pick my nose in the car - because people are always looking, and not being able to flip people off - because no one takes me seriously in my diminutive ride, the car is a joy to own. My problem is not really with the car as much as the interference it causes with my iPhone.

I do my best to not use my mobile phone in restaurants, business meetings, store check out lines or other public places where people deserve my intention, or are in a captive space. As fascinating as I am to me, my conversations are really not very interesting to others. They don't have to hear me talking from my table or listen to my favorite ring tone of the moment. There are about 5 hundred bazillion ways cell phone use can be offensive and in most public places, they are best left in your pocket - only Batman should keep electronics on his belt. However, if I am outside, in a parking lot, it is really tough, even for me, to piss someone off with the phone. Because I don't use my phone where it might offend, I use it a lot in between those places and my car. Nine out of ten walks between my car and an appointment, I am on the phone.

The "puppy effect" of the smart seems to grant a others a license to interrupt my conversations. Every time I get out of the car, there is someone who wants to talk about the car. They mean well and they are curious, but I'm on the phone. I don't use a bluetooth headset or some kind of microscopic neural implant which could be easily overlooked. I have an iPhone in my hand pressed up against my ear. I don't want to be rude to a complete stranger and just ignore them, but just the same, I am on the phone. I realize their question about my car is urgent, and they will not be able to enjoy the rest of their day unless they know my mileage, but please, I - am- on- the- phone. You are giving me the option to be rude to you, or rude to the person I chose to speak with. I usually choose the former - with a nice smile though. It has to stop.

I hereby announce an amendment to the social contract covering public phone use. If I am on the phone and not otherwise intruding upon your space, or requesting your attention while providing less than half of mine, you should not start speaking to me. If you do, I will ignore you. So next time you see someone get out of a smart with an iPhone to their ear, and the rude asshole ignores you - relax. It's probably me.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Media is Reporting the Game Industry is Over: Why are They Such Babies Edition

Image
My posting continues to move at a glacial pace. For a while, there was nothing new to say. Then, all of sudden, the world exploded with new ideas and I had no time to write. I attribute the plethora of new ideas - things other than marketing gaffes, publishers' hosing of developers, the need for independent finance and the folks who are saying they have it or xBox becoming cable - as a reflection of increased sensitivity attributable to too much travel and too little sleep. But bubbles are growing, companies are reacting, and CEOs seem to be turning into either Chicken Little or ostriches with heads in the sand. Some of the new stuff floating around in my head is: - The abandonment of seasoned game designers in favor of metric driven design - catering to metrics let you keep more players, but are those players worth keeping? - The complete lack of game sales data for XBL and PSN - Do the platforms really think they are helping us by cloaking sales in a shroud of mystery? - Th
Read more

The Game Business Is A Year From Irrelevance:Where are Our Easy Riders and Raging Bulls Edition

Image
Every time I told people in suits and ties - or my parents - I was in the game business, they started to talk about kids. They viewed our business as the toy business. Games are for children. This was when I pulled out my silver bullet. I had The ESA's (then IDSA) latest report showing the average age of gamers. I started when it was 27. The "average age" went up a year each year, but was still a neat statistic when I could say 30 or 31. Whether it was directed at a school parent or an audience at a conference, It inevitably led to a dropped jaw and a "wow, I didn't know that." The industry instantly became relevant to their business. I haven't really paid much attention to this number because my proselytizing for the business was taken over by outlets like the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and USA Today, which all have a larger reach than this blog or my speaking engagements. But this past week I saw some slides for an ESA speech indicatin
Read more

Game Marketing: The Proctologists are Doing Brain Surgery Edition

Image
[ Let me apologize in advance for the length of the large gaseous stream of consciousness belch which follows, it's been a while since I wrote anything and I guess some pent up stuff started flow .] Another Q4 is behind us and the publishers are locked down in the deep, dark, musty bowels of their fortress like edifices surveying the seasonal lucre. The piles are not quite as high as year’s past and when they reemerge into the sunlight from their Morlock existence in the counting and analysis rooms, they will not be happy. Contrary to the mainstream media reports, sales for most publishers were less than stellar. Gamasutra’s story highlighting what they characterized as low numbers for Mirror's Edge and Dead Space (for the sake of argument let's not mention they did not apply the NPD multiplier to determine real US sales, nor did they add in PC sales or sales in foreign territories which are not reflected in NPD) reflects the norm rather than the exception. The point
Read more