A Petty Complaint

Okay.  I’ve been in classrooms, both as a student and as a teacher, where cell phones have embarrassed everyone by bursting into their cheerful, abrasive songs.  And really, it has been an embarrassment: both my classmates and my students had the grace to be utterly abashed and swear not to let it happen again.  These interruptions are annoying, but almost pleasurable, since the teacher has an opportunity to crack a crotchety one-liner and everyone with their cellphone on silent may gloat.  (Setting it to vibrate does not count, since the grinding moan of a vibrating phone is equally distracting.)

But I am sitting in a very cold, silent room with about a dozen other dissertating grad students.  We’re thinking, reading, writing and we’ve been here for two hours without saying a word to one another.  We are focused.  And yet already, three different cell phones have begun their equally mortifying ringtones and have been allowed to “ring” until finished.  Why?  How could anyone think that was appropriate?  Would you whistle while you work in a study zone?  Would you begin reciting the Declaration of Independance while you and everyone else is attempting intellectually industry?  You wouldn’t… or you shouldn’t… and I can’t understand why the owners of these phones don’t scramble for them and turn off their offensive noise.  It’s like… aural littering.  I want to sit on this bench, but there is gum on it.

So since I haven’t repurposed the shattered pieces of my attention span, I’m complaining about it.  Feel free to commiserate with my grumpiness (has anyone noticed that folks on the bus seem to let their ringtones play on purpose before answering, like they are treating us all to a little bit of Top 40 airplay?) or to talk about how your own ringtone is so much better than anyone else’s.