..........can you hear me now?

Cell phones, you either love 'em or hate 'em. The mobile phone is beginning to be one of the more irritating parts of life. The kids at school can't use them during school hours (7:45 AM - 3:10 PM); but they are allowed to carry the phones on their person during the same hours. What's up with that? Well, I guess the school shootings incidents at Columbine and Virginia Tech have paved the way for a complete restriction on possession of phones on school grounds. In the event of an incident, communication would be a major concern. Serious incidents aside, these are irritating little devices of communication. We live in a society that continues to lose its people skills, and cell phones have not helped matters. When the phones first became small enough to carry comfortably on one's person, the rates for usage were still high enough to keep people from using them all of the time, and there was still some standards for when to use them. Now, rates are not high and using cell phones seems to be the first consideration in any social situation. I absolutely think that answering a cell phone when you are in the middle of a conversation with someone else is completely unacceptable. I cannot begin to account for the times that I have been speaking face to face with someone, when their cell phone rings and they immediately answer it. That type of a situation automatically sends a message that your conversation was of little, if any importance. There was once a time when it was not acceptable at all to use cell phones in some situations. Now, all codes of conduct for phone use is completely gone. Before I present a band concert in our auditorium, I ask for the audience to please silence and/or turn-off all mobile phones. In a respectful society, that should not be a necessity. What really grinds my gears, is to hear a phone ring during church! What, you bring a cell phone into church with you? Today, I heard a phone ring during the sermon. It was immediately evident who got the call (you know, the phone is never easily accessible). Someone received a text message during the service. If that wasn't enough, the person who got the message passed the phone to several other people so they could see the message, too! I'm sorry, but you people just disrespected every reason that you came to church for in the first place! I'm the first guy to speak in church every Sunday morning (making the church wide announcements). I think I'll begin next week by asking the congregation to silence all cell phones. It'll be fun to see the reaction. Just last week, I heard one of our principals talking about a parent who had been called to the school to discuss the behavior of his child. The parent came into the school with one of those stupid Blue Tooth devices hanging off of his ear. He left this thing on when he went into the administrator's office; and, while in a discussion concerning the welfare of his child, answered a phone call. If that would have been me, I would have ended the conversation right then and there, and asked the parent to reschedule the meeting when he had more time to talk. Being connected is great; but, where are our personal standards going? Our people skills are suffering greatly, and with more forms of communication available, we are learning less about real communication.