The Cell Phone Girl

You know who they are. Those people that don't seem to know when, because of the time and the place, a cell phone conversation is not socially acceptable.

Like in the middle of church. Or while taking a test. Or while sitting in a "no cell phone" area of the library. Or in the middle of class if your class has less than 50 people. Or when sitting at the dinner table.

The list goes on and on. Sometimes I want to turn and look at those people and say, "Not here. It's not socially acceptable." But I just give them "the look" instead, which they usually ignore because, well, they are on the phone.

So anyway. Today I was taking a survey. A paid survey. Can I just say that I have run into this sweet setup where I get emails about surveys that the BYU business school will pay me to take and if I want to participate, I just sign up for a time and go? I get $5 a survey, too, and they usually take less than half an hour. Lunch money for a week!

But I digress. We were in a rather large room with about 50 computers. And there were 4 of us. And we were waiting for the survey person to give us the instructions. One girl there, eager to take advantage of the silence, got on her cell phone. After 2 or 3 minutes, the survey person said, "Ok, let's get started." The girl on the phone didn't even look up. The survey person cleared her throat and said a little louder, "Ok, we're going to get started. Please put everything else away." Still nothing but loud cell phone conversation from the cell phone girl.

The survey person glanced over at me and I snickered, trying to let her know that I, too, thought this awkward situation was incredibly funny.

Finally, the survey person walked over to the cell phone girl and said, "We're going to get started, if you could put that away." "Oh, ok," was the reply.

And then she said into her phone, "Look, I'm taking a survey right now, so I'll call you later." And all 4 of the rest of us just snickered, thinking, that is so not socially acceptable.

Is there a time when in situations like this a cell phone conversation (loud, not even whispered!) is ok?