Take Out Your Bluetooth Earpiece!
Pet Peeve Alert: Everyone has a Bluetooth earpiece now. I have a Jawbone and love it. It’s a great convenience – especially when I’m running through airports. I’ve always been a headset lover, because I like to walk around during phone conversations. But recently I’ve encountered more and more people who won’t take them out of their ear – ever. I’ve seen them worn in restaurants, in meetings, and even in church. I pitched a screenplay to an agent one time and to this day I don’t know if he was actually talking to me or someone else on his &^%$ headset. Last week Kathleen and I attended a wedding and sat next to a guy and guess what? He had his Bluetooth stuck in his ear for the entire ceremony – power indicator light flashing away. When the lights dimmed and the bride came down the aisle, he looked like an airport landing signal going off over on row three.
I think my biggest frustration is the growing idea that since it’s already in your ear, you should go ahead and take that call – even if you’re in a private, quiet, or inconvenient place, or somewhere that disturbs other people. Cell phones are luring us into the idea that we need to answer it 24/7.
Don’t forget that voice mail is a wonderful thing. Sometimes we should even use it.
I have a jawbone as well and I love it! But in order to prevent me from answering calls out of sheer novelty and to save the battery life, I usually turn it off as soon as I get to my destination. It goes off and back in my purse. I use it driving – that’s almost it.
I agree. I think it sends a non-verbal to people. "Hi I’m talking to you right now, however I’m waiting for someone more important than you to call me at any moment". I use it in the car to be hands free and never take it out of the car otherwise.
The prefer the term "bluehole." Kinda sums it all up.
I just tossed my old, taped together Jabra and got the Blue Ant. It’s so comfortable, I forget it’s there… I do agree it should not be a permanent accessory but I do keep it in whenever I am working, though not in meetings. 🙂
my sis-in-law’s relative had one in for her whole wedding and reception!!
"Cell phones are luring us into the idea that we need to answer it 24/7."
"are luring"? I would say "have lured".
I have even more contempt for Bluetooth than I do for regular mobile phones, as not only are they intrusive but you look like an idiot too.
I refuse to own either because too often man serves technology rather than the other way round. If someone wants to speak to me, they can call the landline and if I am in I will answer.
Incidentally, its amazing how people from work think twice about phoning a landline and only do so if its really vital whereas they don’t think twice about phoning a mobile, regardless of how trivial the issue is, or whether it can wait.
Why is "are luring" us not correct? This sentence is in the present tense. The only effect your suggestion has is changing it to past tense.
Why don’t you try searching for "are luring" in Google news and see how references there are to this word combination.
It’s better to keep quiet and have people assume you’re not vested with intelligence then to open it up and remove all doubt.
When i used to work as a cashier, if someone in line was on a cell phone, i usually just sat quiet and got them on their way quickly… but if someone was on a Blue Tooth, i would try and have a conversation based on their talking to the person on the other end of the phone. I always pretended like i didn’t notice it.
Usually it ended with them looking up, halfway through their conversation, to have me telling them about something very unrelated to being a cashier. Probably not the best for customer service, but i was a high schooler at a retail store.
Aside from the unfortunate behaviors that cell earpiece use promotes, I really think the biggest problem is the one stated at the end of this post – That we’re getting used to answering the phone under any and all circumstances, which is not a good thing for anyone. Personally, I thought the days of constant contact and incessant communication with work, family, and friends were numbered and we would all start living like humans again, but some people don’t see it that way obviously.