Cell Phone Rant - it's not what you think

Sometimes I hate cell phones. I'm not talking about being forced to listen to a stranger's conversation in a public place although, really, who hasn't wanted to jerk that phone out of their hands and remove the battery and the simm card?

I'm annoyed beyond reason sometimes at the way cell phones intrude on the one-on-one time I'm spending with someone. You've experienced it too, I know. Sorry, I have to take this, as they pull the phone from their pocket. Since when does a ringing phone take precedence over a person standing in front of you? Isn't that what voicemail is for? Unless the call results in a high-speed drive to meet an ambulance at the hospital, it is not an emergency.

And don't get me started on texting. Too late.... You're hanging out, and some noodle in the group spends most of the time texting...with who? about what? Hey, get your nose out of the phone and join us! We want to talk to you too.

And here's a new one. Did you know that while you are talking to someone on a cell phone, they may be using their phone to text someone else or answer their email or play solitaire at the same time? Yep. It's true. It happened to me. It could happen to you.

I miss the days of having the total attention of the person I'm with. OK, they may be daydreaming of something else while I'm yammering on, but they're talking to just me and no one else. We aren't interrupted. They don't have to come back and ask, where were we?

Do we multi-task so much that we don't know how to stop? Is each and every one of those balls we have up in the air so critical that if we let one fall the consequences are just too dire to think about?

Believe me, I know I'm trying to push water up hill here. Technology - good and bad - is here to stay. But, please, while you're talking to me, take that blasted thing out of your ear.