I never cease to be amazed and analytical of the mobile lifestyles of phone users around us, and its attendant social implications. It is an understatement to say that mobile phone has become part of our social lifestyles and as such due recognition must be granted it. Last Saturday afternoon, I was taking some cool drinks at a popular eatery at Ikeja, Lagos when I noticed this young man on a table close to mine. He hast two mobile phones on the table before him; One was the Treo 650 Pocket PC and the other was the Nokia 6230i handset.
While he eats, he occasionally taps the screen of the Treo 650 with the stylus, puts it back on the table and resumes his eating. I think this person enjoyed the attention he got from people around him in the restaurant. I think that was the whole essence of the displays. My observation of various people usage of the mobile phone are discussed and analysed below:
Phone Handling
The way people handle or keep their phones have many things to say about their age or gender. I noticed that men generally keep their phones in their pockets or attach them to belt clips. A few dandy ones hang their phones on their neck. Then, these are category of young men who use small and light phones like Nokia 1100 or Nokia 2300.
Women normally keep their phones in their handbags, with occasionally checking of the phone in the bag to see if it is ringing or if there is a text message. This occasional checking happens particularly if they are in a noisy environment where it might be difficult to hear the phone ringing. The younger generation of women, when they are in groups, discussing or in a restaurant, love to bring out their phones and put it on the table before them. This is to enable them to detect incoming calls or new text messages immediately.
Phone Display
The older adult male or female, typically those from middle age and above generally keep their phones out of site, until when they need to make or answer a call. The younger generation of phone users especially those below 25 years of age like to show off their phones at any opportunity. This group normally use fancy and beautiful phones, which they will like people to admire or comments on.
Those who use ordinary Call and Receive phones normally keep their phones out of sight. They feel no urge in displaying it since these phones do not have any other extra features except the basic Call and Receive functions. The Hi-Tech phone users or the Hi-Spend phone people always seize every opportunity to display their phones.
Do you display your phone like this?
Ringtones
Mobile phones that are capable of playing MP3 as ringtones are very fashionable nowadays. This is popular among the youths who like to use popular hit tracks as their ringtones. In essence, they like to hear the sound of their phones ringing, even when they are in a public place. No wonder they left their phones ringing for a long time before picking up their calls. This is to impress their friends and people around them with their choice of ringtones.
The older generation are discrete with their ringtones, and if anything, they prefer the traditional ringtones. They do not want something ostentatious or that will attract unnecessary attention towards them. This makes them to set the ringing volume of their phones to low and also go for a more traditional ringtones.
Missed Calls
Have you ever been accused by people for failing to return their calls? Nowadays when flashing is very common, it is difficult to know who is a serious caller and who is flashing just to say, “I miss u”. Some people can be justifiably angry with you for failing to call them back after they called you and their call was not answered.
I think the real problem is the question of who bears the burden of the call. If you call back, then you automatically paid the bill. If you wait for the other person to call back, he or she paid the bill. Since it is the other person who wants to contact you, the easiest thing is to wait for the other person to call back.
From my interaction with others, the safest rule to follow is if the person whose call you missed is a family member, a close relative or friend, or your superior in office, the best thing is to return the call. You may flash back if you do not have enough credits to complete the call. For other who are unidentified callers or people who you are not eager to talk to, it is better to wait for them to call back.
Answering of Calls
It is not uncommon nowadays to see people answering telephone calls in the public without due regards for the people around them. Many people answer their calls and talk loudly on their phone in the public not minding if other people are disturbed or not.
In addition, it is a bad social manner for people to be interrupting meetings or conversations with people in order to answer phone calls or reply to text messages. Recently in a school’s committee meeting, a member of the committee left the meeting in annoyance because the Chairman of the committee keeps interrupting the meetings by answering and making calls on his mobile phone.
When in the public, the best practice is after answering your call, ask the caller to hold on, then move to a quieter place and continue the conversation. If you are in a meeting, switch off your phone or put it in a Silent Mode so that it does not ring out, while you quietly go outside to answer your calls.
A friend, Jude, told me how he was shouted down by his Managing Director when one day, while in his MD’s office with his immediate boss, he answered his call, and moved to go to the toilet to continue the conversation. “My friend, will you switch off that thing and sit down! Stop being a slave to your machine!” fumed his MD. Since that day, Jude always left his phone on his table whenever going to his Managing Director’s office. Moreover, while in meetings, he either switched off totally or put the phone in Silent Mode.
This article will be completed in the next post. Readers are free to drop their comments.
How do you handle phone calls?
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