Cell Phone Usage Etiquette



Cell phones are great—they keep us in touch with friends and family and can be life savers in an emergency. But they can also be annoying if not used thoughtfully. Your phone doesn’t have to be on all the time and you don’t always have to answer it immediately. Learn to use your phone’s features like silent ring, vibrate and voice mail to handle the times when your phone would be bothering others if it rang and you answered it.

  1. Be in control of your phone, don’t let it control you!
  2. While answering the phone calls, speak softly and politely so that nobody gets disturbed due to your voice.
  3. Be courteous to those you are with; turn off your phone if it will be interrupting a conversation or activity.
  4. Watch your language during phone calls, especially when others can overhear you.
  5. During phone calls, avoid talking about personal or confidential topics in a gathering or public place.
  6. If your phone must be on and it could bother others, use the “silent” mode and move away to answer and talk.
  7. Strictly avoid making/taking calls in a library, theatre and mosque or church. People don’t come to these places to hear you and your voice can seriously interrupt the actual purpose of these places.
  8. Don’t make calls or text during class or a meeting at your job (except the emergency).
  9. Expecting an important at the time of meeting? Warn the meeting leader before the session starts. Then keep the phone hidden and silent. When it lights up or buzzes with an incoming call, you can grab it, excuse yourself and take the call out of the room.
  10. Avoid sharing private information in text, it can be forwarded and misused easily.
  11. NEVER use your phone to text or making call at the time of driving. It’s a criminal offence and someone can die due to this.
  12. If you want to play a video on your phone, notice the people who will be disrupted with the sound and light of your phone. Consider the lighting condition and noise in the room.
  13. If you are in movie theatre, it’s strictly prohibited to play video on your phone as the light of the phone can disturb the people sitting with you and behind you. Only one video can be played in theatre which is played by the theatre. You need to leave the theatre room if you want to see another video on your phone.
  14. Select soft sounds as your notification ring tones so it could not affect the listeners around you.
  15. Keep the volume only to that level which you can hear easily. Others are never interested to listen your calls or ringtones.
  16. If you want to play a video on your phone, ensure that nobody is sleeping beside you or the sound needs to be at minimum level if you are in a quiet place. The volume of the video can only be set to that level which could be easily hear by you only. It should not be loud enough to disturb anyone.
  17. If you are sitting in a gathering, avoid seeing at your phone screen. If you do, it shows that you have zero interest in the people or topics being discussed around you.
  18. In gatherings, avoid using loud speaker to listen any voice messages and videos. It’s against the manners of sitting in gathering. Be sure that your phone volume is at minimum level always before playing any video or music.
  19. Whenever your phone rings, if it’s in your hand than first stop the ringer by pressing the volume button and then decide to answer it or not but be sure to stop it from ringing in case you can’t answer it or don’t want to.
  20. The phone was never more important than feelings of someone, if someone was not able to answer your call that always means that he is not in suitable position to answer the call. So, you should not scold anyone for not taking your call or charge him with an allegation of not giving respect.
  21. Prefer using text messaging instead of making call except emergency or urgency because your call can disturb the receiver but the text gives a relaxation to recipient to respond whenever he is able to.
  22. For better conversations, use the messengers like Whatsapp or any other which have the history messages of the conversation so that recipient can better understand your message.
  23. Try to keep the message short. If you want to write 5 sentences, merge the sentences in 3 or 4 and write in single message instead of sending multiple messages.
  24. If you post things very frequently in your status and timeline than consider below rules for posting something publically:
    • Your post should not be pointing someone.
    • If your post is specifically pointing someone, make sure he/she doesn’t get hurt due to your used content.
    • If your post is specifically pointing someone, make sure he/she doesn’t get insulted or embarrassed in front of his/her family/relatives/friends.
    • Strictly consider the audience before posting, the privacy of your post needs to be checked because once its posted, you owe the responsibility of the outcomes.
    • Every post is equal to an announcement. Be sure that the content you are posting deserves to be announced or not.
  25. Couples should agree to limit bedtime cell-phone usage, lest too much texting and tweeting turn your nighttime safe haven into a satellite office. Texting, e-mailing, or Facebooking is like bringing others into the bedroom instead of making it a calm retreat.

Author
Sajid M.Qureshi
sajid.mq@outlook.com

Blogs:
sajidmq.blogspot.com

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