There has been a couple of pieces in the news over the last few of days, about a lady who went shopping at her local Sainsbury's store. When she got to the checkout, the girl at the till refused to serve her until she ended the call she making on her mobile phone.
The woman ended the call and was served, but then went and complained to customer services.
Rather than back their member of staff, Sainsbury's apologised to the lady and then offered her a £10 voucher.
To be honest I wouldn't have had this problem, because I have manners, and wouldn't be using my mobile, whilst a shop assistant is trying to help me. If the call was so urgent that I needed to take it, I'd have stepped out of line and asked the next person to go in front of me.
What annoys me about this is the fact that Sainsbury's, by apologising and offering a voucher, seem to be agreeing that this sort of rude and anti-social behaviour is acceptable.
And this got me thinking about mobile phones and how they seem to have changed the way we do things, and are changing what we think of as being acceptable.
Recently whilst going to hospital, there was a phone-in show on the radio, where they were discussing how many 10 and 11 year olds who were walking to school were injured because they were texting or browsing the internet on their mobiles, and simply walked out into the road.
As I'm listening to this, and thinking that when I was that age, although there was considerably less traffic on the road, we had road safety drummed into us, we rounded a corner, just as a guy, probably in his late 30's, stepped out into the road in front of us, texting on his phone, with earphones in, listening to his iPod. He was completely unaware of us, even when the ambulance screeched to a halt. He didn't even look up.
They went on to say how many injuries are caused each day by people walking, and concentrating on their phones, and then walking into lamp posts, post boxes, other people, and even falling down holes, where engineers are working in the street.
Surely people only do that for comedy value, and for silly video's on YouTube.
How often have I had to swerve my wheelchair, to avoid someone talking or texting on their phone, because they are oblivious to the fact that I'm there.
And then my solicitor came to see me a few weeks ago. Her office is in a listed-building and simply cannot accommodate my wheelchair, so if anything needs signing she comes to me.
On this occasion she was a little bit late, which she apologised for, and then explained that her previous client had been late for her appointment at the office. Rather than apologise, the client stated that it was the solicitors fault, because she hadn't sent her a text reminder of the appointment, like her doctor or dentist does.
This wouldn't happen to me, because I have a fully functioning brain, which allows me to remember appointments. In the event that me brain isn't functioning at its normal high capacity, I have a back-up system, called a diary, which allows me to record these appointments, so each day I can look and see what I need to be doing that day. Even better there is a diary on my mobile phone, which sends me reminder messages, so I can't forget.
Mobile phones have certainly changed a lot about how we communicate and interact with each other, but not all of these changes are for the better. They shouldn't be an excuse to be rude or anti-social, or a reason not to be aware of our surroundings. We still need to take responsibility for ourselves and our actions.
I think mobile phones have probably changed many things for the better, but wasn't it nice being able to go out of the front door and know that no one could get hold of you, until you got home again.
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