Safety, courtesy top 2005 cell phone rules

I’m the type of person who has trouble with electric can openers and toothbrushes. It’s a sorry state of affairs when my 4-year-old granddaughter can operate our VCR and I cannot. This is the same little girl who can make greeting cards on the computer, something that I have not even dreamed of doing.

This column’s appearance is also a coincidence because just last week – along with the beginning of the New Year – I “turned over a new leaf” and took full possession of my own cell phone.

This is only the second mobile telephone I’ve ever possessed in my whole life. I had to give up the first one more than a year ago after a series of minor traffic incidents related to cell-phone usage. I am terrified by the number of one-armed drivers with phones attached to their heads that I see around town.

To tell the truth, I got along pretty well without a phone. Over the last year or so, I’ve heard people gasp when I told them I did not have a cell phone. What did we do before they were invented?

Becoming a cellular user once again entails new, stricter rules surrounding talking on the phone. My first rule: I will not ever use my phone in the car unless I have fully pulled off the road and have safely shifted into park.

I know that this is something that you all take for granted. And many of you feel you would be at a distinct disadvantage in earning a living at all without your cell phones attached to your hips. And I know it’s true.

It makes your waistlines look kind of lumpy, though.

I have mixed feelings on the whole subject of cell phones. I am offended when people chat about nonurgent business over the phone when they’re supposed to be eating a meal – with me – and supposedly are interested in our conversation. The kid in me wants your full attention.

My second rule is “No talking on the phone at the table.” Physician friends, I’ve noticed, are sensitive and courteous in this regard. They quickly glance at their caller ID, and then politely excuse themselves to attend to the critical needs of their patients. Cell phones can save lives. I want to be able to call for help when I need it, too.

I was amused to see the signs at Smillie’s IGA recently asking customers to disconnect their cells before reaching the cashier in the checkout line. If you are so smart that you can count your change and talk on the telephone at the same time, a genius like you should be able to afford to hire someone else to do errands for you.

Rule number three should be tattooed on our foreheads: “Turn off the mobile before attending weddings, Sunday Mass, speaker meetings, job interviews, etc.” Please look into the purchase of a vibrating model if you must stay turned on all the time.

SBJ joins digital revolution

While I am slow to incorporate some technologies into my own life, the SBJ staff will be working to create a new Web site that makes it easier for you to get involved with our publications and events. The Business Journal will be unveiling new online features before mid-year.

We are now officially “under construction.” I wish I could tell you more now. Suffice it to say, we want to provide daily local business news to subscribers. In SBJ’s 25th anniversary year, we are ready and anxious for everything to be in place. It’s our biggest investment in New Year 2005.

In the meantime, despite our collective strides into the future, I will not be keeping my calendar on computer.

My darling daughter-in-law informed me recently that she was unsure whether she could meet up with me for an evening out. Her calendar was on computer, and her computer was “down.”

I was stunned into silence. I just didn’t know what to say. She was quick then to say that she would just “make it happen.”

This is one of my favorite family stories, and I repeat it often.

Happy New Year. Send me an e-mail, if you think of it. My address is: delizabeth@sbj.net. I am familiar with the location of the “Reply” box on the computer screen.

Dianne Elizabeth is publisher and president of Springfield Business Journal.