Question about foreign cultures

[Platapus]

I like to study cultures that are foreign to me. I find it interesting to see how different groups of people address societal issues.

I do have one instance where I would appreciate anyone who can explain what, to me, seems like an odd cultural trait.

What the hell are people talking about when they are yapping on their cell phones and blocking the aisles at the grocery store???

Honestly, it is getting harder and harder to just get the shopping done. What are these people talking about and why are they doing it in a grocery store that is already crowded and has narrow aisles.

Really, what is so important in their lives that they have to talk to someone and block the aisles???

(deep breathing)

Feeling better now, but I have to do the grocery shopping tomorrow and already the stress is building.

Yap all you want, but please consider the other people around you who need to get stuff done.

[Buddahaid]

The phone is just a further step in being oblivious to your surroundings as well as expanding a sense of personal space.

[STEED]

If they are not farting around on candy crush they are farting around like sales person...

Oh wait these beans cost 2p more and these ones cost 10p more but you get more in the can so its worth it, oh wait if you get a four pack you.....SHUT UP AND GET OFF THAT BLOODY PHONE!

Before the mobile phone we all got on well enough but it seems now many many people are mobile phone junkies who need their minute by minute high.

[HunterICX]

At work I ignore anyone who's on the damn phone, I move onto the next client who does listen carefuly to what I'm about to explain so I have to do it only once.


I consider it a very small loss if the **** on the phone walks off when he sees I'm helping others that came after him.


Also can't we start shredding the driver's license of those idiots calling behind the wheel of their bluetooth equiped cards and not using the handsfree option?

[Sailor Steve]

I agree. It's the very height of rudeness to talk on the phone at a store, especially when you ignore the clerk who is trying to help you. It's hard enough spending the day on your feet scanning items and ringing them up for total strangers, only to have one or more of them treat you like a machine. I like talking to the checkout people at the store.

Of course it doesn't hurt that I hate phones and only ever use mine when I absolutely have to.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Of course it doesn't hurt that I hate phones and only ever use mine when I absolutely have to.

I am the same way. I can't imagine myself yackin on the phone for long periods of time. My phone calls are short and to the point and then ended.

That's kinda why I asked the question. What do people talk about? It is not just in the grocery stores, but pretty much everywhere I go, people are either talking or texting. What about???

Am I missing something important that is happening in life?

And it is not just the younglings. Old farts like me are also yappin all the time.

I realize that I am an introvert and in addition obnoxious and disliked so the idea of socially talking to anyone is pretty much a strange concept to me.

Is it all small talk and how much small talk can one person do???

[Jeff-Groves]

I get calls from my Boss and then he says "Hold on I got to take this call!"
I hang up. You want to talk to me? Dedicate the time or don't bother me.
I'm on the job making you money and don't have time to stand around waiting and doing nothing!

I personally don't blame phones nor their users per se for using them wherever, but I do find inconsideration and indiscretion a cardinal sin.
And yes, using your phone in social situations (especially one-on-one) is one of those things!

[Buddahaid]

I have little choice about using my phone. It is the primary device used at work to communicate whether that's phone calls, texts, or emails.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Platapus

I do have one instance where I would appreciate anyone who can explain what, to me, seems like an odd cultural trait.

What the hell are people talking about when they are yapping on their cell phones and blocking the aisles at the grocery store???

Honestly, it is getting harder and harder to just get the shopping done. What are these people talking about and why are they doing it in a grocery store that is already crowded and has narrow aisles.

Really, what is so important in their lives that they have to talk to someone and block the aisles???

(deep breathing)

Feeling better now, but I have to do the grocery shopping tomorrow and already the stress is building.

Yap all you want, but please consider the other people around you who need to get stuff done.

I occasionally and humorously 'diplomatically' remind such isle-blockers that it's "illegal in California to talk on a cell phone while ' driving a vehicle!!'"...invariably they are amused by the double-entendre and their absent-mindedness to give right-of-way!!

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Platapus

I am the same way. I can't imagine myself yackin on the phone for long periods of time. My phone calls are short and to the point and then ended.

I used to call my dad sometimes, but toward the end it was always my step-mom who answered it. One day I let slip that I was using a pay-per-minute plan, but I had a good deal that gave me 200 minutes per month for $15. She asked why I didn't have a cheaper plan. I told her that if I talked a lot she might have a point, but my average monthly talk-time was only about 20 minutes, and I have several thousand minutes rolled over that I will never use.

That's kinda why I asked the question. What do people talk about? It is not just in the grocery stores, but pretty much everywhere I go, people are either talking or texting. What about???

Toward the end of the original run of her newspaper comic strip For Better or for Worse, Lynn Johnston had a strip showing the mom driving her teenaged daughter and a friend. The two girls were in the back seat texting each other on their phones. Mom says (paraphrasing) "When I was your age we actually talked to each other." Daughter says "But mom, we are talking!"

People gain different perceptions, not only about others, but about themselves. People talking or texting on their phones don't really think they're being rude, and if you say something, you are the rude one.

I realize that I am an introvert and in addition obnoxious and disliked so the idea of socially talking to anyone is pretty much a strange concept to me.

I'm not much of a people person. I have neighbors in apartments all around me, and while I can be polite and even friendly in passing, I'm not remotely interested in what they are, and I'm sure the opposite is true. The only people I like to talk to are the ones who are interested in the same subjects that I am.

[Jimbuna]

My 'speciality' in supermarkets is to brush alongside them with my trolley but not ard enough to knock them off balance. I then usually get wrong off my wife because I know it irritates the life out of her.

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

My 'speciality' in supermarkets is to brush alongside them with my trolley but not ard enough to knock them off balance. I then usually get wrong off my wife because I know it irritates the life out of her.

Take your phone out and hold it to your ear. Then after you bump them say..."Sorry , didn't see you. I was talking on my phone."

[CDR DPH]

At least 50% of the time, people in public spaces have answered an incoming call. Most people think nothing of calling someone on their cell phone at any hour without giving any thought to the appropriateness of the time. When you should know that someone is driving to work for example, eating dinner or sleeping.

My cell phone goes to sleep at 11 pm and wakes ups again at 7 am. I don't care how drunk someone is or whether they need a ride, I don't care who has died during the night (I can't do anything about that) and of course there are all of those wrong number calls at 2 am when the bars close. As a matter of routine, calls come in as you go about your daily activities. Calls from work can be most annoying - "where did you put the pencil sharpener?"

The onus is on the person being called to show restraint and send the call to voicemail if in a place where it is not appropriate to be talking to your aunt about uncle Merv's cat (in line at the bank, grocery shopping, in a theater etc). Clearly microwaves do fry the brains of cell phone users.

I absolutely love it when when someone using a phone falls into a fountain, smacks their face on a light pole or gets run over by the garbage truck. You have to know that those who catch a ride on the underside of a garbage truck have walked into a fountain/pole at least once before.

Even worse -In a grocery store, mom on the phone and two or more kids running up and down the aisles yelling and squeezing the Charmin. I live in a 3rd world country where kids are born with a cellphone velcro'd to their ear at birth. The entire society is beeping, ringing, clicking everywhere all the time. Noise cancelling headphones are a must on buses and I take a low power cellphone jammer to the restaurant to give me a 3 or 4 table buffer in all directions. Funny how no one sits near me anymore or gets up and moves when I sit down. ;-)

I have a high power jammer that I tried in the theater but it kind of defeats the purpose as every single screen in the place is illuminated as everyone asks the person next to them if they have a signal and tries to figure out why they don't, then the swearing starts...

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

My 'speciality' in supermarkets is to brush alongside them with my trolley but not ard enough to knock them off balance. I then usually get wrong off my wife because I know it irritates the life out of her.

Pictures or it didn't happen!