Is Cell Rudeness Ending

I had a cell phone moment (when I am annoyed by a cell call and reflect about it later) with Jane in while driving in the car last night. It was in response to seeing the chattering cell addicts in a grocery store earlier that day. One of them screamed his loudest into his phone every aisle of the store to get "instructions" from his wife on which products to buy. Sigh... Maybe the guy never heard of taking a list of the items to the store beforehand, or maybe he know I would be there and wanted to torture me with annoyance.
Anyway, I was telling Jane about pre cell phone days (The Days of Glory!) and the discussion detoured into what you are getting in this E mail. That is, my belief that we will soon be free of the cell phone fetish and much of the annoyance by users. It will pass (Does that line sound like a preacher's? Maybe I should instead write "And God said, cell abuse will pass".). I think the rampant bad behavior by cell users is transitory period, driven by fascination with technology and the trendiness of it all. In my view cell phones are today's fad. They are "in" now and the abuse of users of one is thought to be stylish.
But all stylish things fade as people come to their senses and see the reality, tire of the fad, desire to be different and turn from the fad or countless other reasons. I actually hear other people now ranting against cell phones as I do. It is becoming fashionable to be against cell phone rudeness, to speak out about their use in public view. This tells me the "Age of the Cell Phone", what I call the early 21st century years, is about to decline.
I expect a new fad to take over and for cell phone rudeness and to take their rightful place with other technology, utilitarian devices rather than a personal rudeness statement. Yep! The day will come when Jim isn't the only person to not have a cell phone, when others will object to cell phone abuse and when users will feel social pressure to not be rude in using their phones.
Jane listened to my speech and seemed somewhat doubtful of it (or of my sanity), so I proceeded to make the case for the end of the world romance with cell phones. I suggested to Jane that we chart the course of the cell evolution, think of what era proceeded it and what others proceeded that one.
In that way we can show that cell phones are short life rages, not long term ones. As Rome fell and the Great Chinese dynasties disappeared, so will the Age of the Cell Phone". So here are the ones we think predated the cell phone nuts of today.
* Athletic shoes- I believe that the last great public obsession with a product was the athletic shoe. Remember those days in the 90's when athletic shoes cost $200 a pair, when celebrity endorsements and company name brands defined the value of the shoe. People spend inordinate amounts of running shoes because they gave status. "I have $200 to waste on my running shoes. Therefore I am better than you". That ws the message for the athletic shoe spending frenzy. Just as a person thinks having the latest cell phone he or she has is "important", the running shoe showed others that the owner had wealth. But running shoes are no longer so expensive today. And does anyone really look to see what label is on yours. The Athletic Shoe Era ended because of overkill, and so will the Age of the Cell Phone. Society tired of the running shoe game and it will tire of cell phones.
And here is a list of some of the ones before the athletic shoe that seemed to grip and annoy people everywhere...
* 1920's- flagpole Sitting and listening to radio shows
* 1930's- car hood ornaments and miniature golf
* 1940's- the Slinky and ...uh...swallowing goldfish
* 1950's- frisbees and the hula hoop
* 1960's- miniskirts and granny glasses (remember those pictures of Beatle John Lennon wearing them)
* 1970's- disco music and streakers
* 1980's- denim jackets and valley girl slang
* 1990's- body piercings and tattoos
* 2000's- Reality TV and ipods If you never heard of some of them it's a good sign, because in the eras everybody knew about it as much as I am aware of cell phone ruddies. If they disappeared, the worship of the cell phone will too. I am looking at my watch right now waiting for that... But you can relax. I doubt any of that stuff will ever reappear to any degree of popularity. We have too many other crazy fads yet to invent.
Oh...I better cut this short, grab my frisbee, turn off the radio, put on my denim jacket and head out for a game of miniature golf.....