Saturday, March 1, 2014

People - Why Don't They Shut Off Their Cell Phones?

Was at a seminar in a premier institute today and was listening to some top brains of the IT industry speak. A loud ringtone disturbed the speech of the key note speaker. Luckily he was not the fussy kind and carried on without missing a beat. (I have seen some bite off the head of the offender.) One would have thought that the first ring was a good enough indicator to some of the top brains in the audience to switch off their mobiles and ensure that no such embarrassing occurrence recurs.

But no, another phone goes of. his one does not stop for quite some time. It's almost as if the guy does not know how to shut it off. Anyway everyone ignores this piece of idiocy and moves on. And then another rings and then another.

What's wrong with these people? It's a premier technology institute and most are people who are considered ahead of tech compared to most. What is it that makes  us hope that out phone will not ring? What is it that does not make us take out our phone and check if it is on silent? Why do we wait for someone to yell at us or look at us that way?

I have no idea why we do this but it was amazing to hear phones go off so frequently. Six times perhaps. Human behavior my friend, is something we can never predict. Intelligence is not going to assure you rational behavior, that is for sure. More in this people series. Meanwhile keep your phones ringing folks.

4 comments:

Rajendra said...

I just turned mine on to full volume..just in case.

Harimohan said...

Ah, that's the way to go Raja. But actually, even the volume and some of the ringtones surprised me. Loud.

Madhav said...

I've the pujari in a wedding getting phone calls in the middle of the ceremony.

Harimohan said...

Yes. And trying to conduct two at a time.