Mobile etiquette (From Penarth Times)

Mobile etiquette

THERE has been an extraordinary 'explosion' in the ownership and use of mobile phones in the past five years or so.

Now every Tom, Dick and Harry seems to have one - not to mention every Harriet.

There are clearly advantages in one possessing a mobile phone. I have in mind here persons who may drive very long distances, some of the time in remote areas, as well as those who have a genuine and urgent professional need to keep in touch regularly.

Just as the explosion of car ownership in the past 40 years or so has had one negative consequence - a sharp decline in public transport facilities in some areas - so the growth of mobile phones in the past decade has in the end led to the closure and dismantling of a large proportion of public telephone boxes.

This leaves those away from home without a mobile phone at a distinct disadvantage.

There is some evidence that mobile phone handsets may be harmful to the users because of the radiation emitted. Even the government seems to accept this by recommending limited use of mobiles, especially by the young.

Those using mobile phones will increasingly be regarded as having been aware of the health risks and proceeded with their use nonetheless, just like smokers. They then become partly responsible for any adverse health effects.

I have become more aware of the social effects of mobile phones and of the proliferation of phone-masts.

There is the effect on sociability. Traditionally, persons in a social environment, including on a train or bus, would either remain quiet if not with anyone known to them, or start conversations, and so make new acquaintances and friends.

The prevalence of mobile phones tends to change all this. I do not make that many long-distance train journeys, but when I have done, I have been impressed by the extent of mobile phone activity, both outward and inward calls.

There would be no objection to important or urgent calls being made, but some such calls are surprisingly long, with the caller speaking in a decidedly loud voice.

Mobile phones are here to stay but I was glad to read recently how a code of conduct for mobile phone users has now been drawn up, a sphere of etiquette rather than the law. People who leave their mobiles switched on in the theatre, for example, would be transgressing this code of etiquette.

As with driving, however, good manners by a large percentage of drivers can be to some extent nullified by others' atrociously bad driving.

The sphere of mobile phones should not of course be exempt from the normal social imperatives of good manners, etiquette and good sense and reasonableness.

Michael O'Neill

Railway Terrace

Penarth