cell phone jammers (was Amtrak - no quiet car)

Miguel Cruz wrote:
In a nutshell, a quiet cellphone call was rated as more annoying by
bystanders than a loud face-to-face conversation. The article's author
suggests that the reason may be because people inadvertently pay more
attention when they can only hear one side of a conversation. Perhaps this
is because their brain is suggesting to them that perhaps they should be
responding. In any case, it rings true with me - I know I can completely
shut out many face-to-face conversations on the train, but it's almost
impossible to ignore a cellphone call happening a few rows away, no matter
how stupid or boring (is there any other kind?).

An interesting follow-up:

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=103829&cid=8847959

miguel
--
Hit The Road! Photos and tales from around the world: http://travel.u.nu

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 16:21:50 GMT, Miguel Cruz wrote:

... I know I can completely
shut out many face-to-face conversations on the train, but it's almost
impossible to ignore a cellphone call happening a few rows away, no matter
how stupid or boring (is there any other kind?).

If the cell phone user really speaks softly, it doesn't bother me.
This is rare however. Also, some face-to-face conversations are pretty
hard for me to shut out. Especially the ones giving a blow-by-blow
description of the speaker's day (or life). "... So then I .... and
then I ... "

I had the bad fortune to take a long bus ride last week in the seat in
front of a woman whose birthday it was. In Italy, sending cards hasn't
really caught on. Instead you call the birthday person. I listened to
about 35 identical calls. "Oh, thank you so much. No, I'm on a bus
just now. I should be home by 10 PM. Ciao!" I kept asking myself how
this boring woman could have so many friends.
--------
Barbara Vaughan

My email address is my first initial followed by my last name at libero dot it.