1 A Courtesy Campaign
Bob Edwards, host: Nearly half of all American adults have wireless telephones. People are buying them at a rate of 46,000 a day. The ri of portable phones has been accompanied by a ri in complaints about mobile phone manners. A few cities have pasd laws restricting their u. But San Diego’s trying a different approach, appealing to cell phone urs with a courtesy campaign. From member station KPBS, Scott Horsley reports.
Scott Horsley Reporting: It ems to be happening more and more, in restaurants, movie theaters, even in church.
Soundbite of Cell Phone Ringing Horsley: When it comes to the shrill interruption监督检查 of a ringing cell phone, no place it ems is sacred.
Reverend Wendy Craig-Purcell: Well, if we’re in the middle of prayer and meditation, I usually just ignore it良好的英语. And I may make a comment afterwards, something like, “Well, you know, maybe the spirit of God is truly calling us and wanting our attention.” \\
Horsley: Not everyone is as forgiving as Reverend Wendy Craig-Purcell of San Diego’s Church of Today. And not everyone views the cell phone as an instrument of divine intervention. 弹字组词When San Diego Mayor Susan Golding conducted an Internet survey last year, thousands of people responded calling for restrictions on cell phone u, especially in movie theatres.
Mayor Susan Golding: I know that I’ve been in the movies. And it’s at the quiet time when everyone’s on the edge of their at and the phone rings next to you and the person starts to talk in a very loud voice.
Horsley: But rather than proposing regulation, Mayor Golding has launched a voluntary courtesy campaign, urging wireless phone urs to mind their mobile manners. The campaign includes stickers that business can display, reminding customers they’re in a quite zone. The mayor herlf posted a sticker outside one movie theatre as Doug Cohen looked on in approval. Cohen is a real estate broker who own cell phone gets plenty of u, but he agrees there ought to be limits.
Doug Cohen: I have a very good friends that I won’t eat lunch with. They just can’t get away from it. So it’s … there’s an etiquette. It’s just like driving or anything el, you know. Some people will subscribe to a certain politeness and some people won’t. But it’s nice that there’s an issue raid here. \\
Horsley: San Diego might em like an unlikely place to rai the issue of rude cell phone u since the cell phone industry is one of the city’s biggest employers, with companies like Qualcomm and Nokia. But Nokia is actually sponsoring the mayor’s courtesy campaign. Vice President Larry Paulson says customers should t phone is vibrate rather than ring in certain ttings, and sometimes even turn their phones off.
Larry Paulson: Certainly, I think everyone agrees with this. In certain public areas such as movie theaters, plays, churches, muums, and libraries, talking can be very disruptive and, esntially, it’s a violation of basic courtesy.
Horsley: Cell phone companies realize a public backlash isn’t good for their business. And with communities in Ohio and New Jery already banning cell phone u behind th
经常腰疼
e wheel, the industry may e a courtesy campaign as a way to head off further government regulation, like the beer companies urging their customers to drink responsibly. \\
Instead of a strict enforcer, Mayor Golding hopes to play a gentle Miss Manners. The real Miss Manners, newspaper columnist Judith Martin, thinks that might work better, anyway.
嘉德勋章Judith Martin: If you u the heavy hand of the law for everyday trivial things, you create this state where everybody is angry at everybody el, where the courts are clogged up. This is a very simple thing we’re talking about: don’t disturb people, you know. Don’t talk at eh movies. Don’t talk on the phone in the movies. Don’t talk to the person next to you in the movies.
人中痣Horsley: Martin says it’s not unusual when new technologies develop for people to believe they’re in an etiquette-free zone. But gradually, a connsus develops about how the tools should be ud. With cell phones, she says, we’re halfway there. \\
People agree that others shouldn’t annoy them with their phones, but they don’t necessarily apply the same rules with themlves. That will be the challenge, as Mayor Golding demonstrated during a news conference kicking off her courtesy campaign.
Mayor Golding: I think we will influence a great number of people to stop and think.
Soundbite of Cell Phone Ringing
财务专业Mayor Golding: For example, my phone is ringing right now. But I think we will influence a lot of people to turn off their cell phones or to put them or vibrate.
Clearly, there are places…and this doesn’t even hang up well. But becau I want to be courteous and not answer it during this press conference.
