My Pet Peeve: The Inappropriate Use of The Cellphone

Everyone finds certain things extremely irritating. These actions, caused by other people, make your lips tighten, eyes roll, and become overwhelmingly irritated. It could be noise, an act, or just something that ticks us. Sometimes people do not realize their acts and behaviors are annoying to others. One of my biggest pet peeves is people who use the cellphone when/where they are not supposed to.

Do you ever feel unimportant or get frustrated when your best friend takes out their cell phone in front of you when you’re together and ends up ignoring you? Does it bother you when someone who's sitting at a nearby seat in a train talks on their phone, and you can hear every single word they say? One of the most revered inventions of the 21st century, the cell phone, is one of the most contentious as well. However, the way many people use them has really gotten out of control lately. Adults and especially teenagers often ignore people surrounding them and block out the real world as they hunch over their phones. Remember that the cell phone is not the problem, it’s the user’s lack of respect for other people and bad manners as well.

Examples include using the cellphone during a meeting. It is extremely disrespectful to use cell phones during a meeting, as you consider the information on your phone to be more important than the conversation occurring in the business meeting. You also consider your friends and the people outside of the meeting to be more important than those sitting right in front of you. A research done by psychologists shows that when people switch back and forth between tasks given to them, they end up losing up to 50% of their efficiency and accuracy. The more complex the task, such as the business meeting discussion, the more processing is lost. In addition, a survey of 3,000 adults has been made which shows that a majority of them say that it was almost as inappropriate to take out your phone during a meeting as it would be in a mosque.

Another example would be using the phone while driving. People die almost every day in car accidents because they use their cell phones while driving! According to a recent research, cell phones are the leading factors that cause almost 80% of accidents around the world. In addition, studies also show that a cell phone can put a driver at a greater risk of a crash, whether it was an emergency call or taking two seconds to only see who the caller is. Despite all the danger it can cause, people still use cell phones because they want to be online and available all the time and keep in touch with other people as well. Moreover, some people use arguments and say that cell phones are necessary for emergency situations. I, however, strongly disagree on that as there are plenty of companies which offer emergency services without using cell phones, Onstar could be an example.

Whilst most people support and agree about the use of cell phones while driving, there is a lot of evidence which proves that they are dangerous and people should avoid talking while driving. I’ve seen many people use their cell phones while driving in Oman. In fact, 84 percent of the road accident deaths last year were due to the use of mobile phones. I remember reading the news last year about the driver of an overloaded delivery truck falling off the Hamriya flyover, “he was using his mobile phone and speeding when the accident happened”, the ROP has said. The accident killed the Omani driver and his Bangladeshi helper as well.

Mobile phones are definitely a great innovation and invention of the last century. However, they are also a distraction and a nuisance. Therefore, mobile phones should only be used in a certain place and time, where it cannot harm the person or cause irritation to other people as well!