Social Awareness of Cell Phone Users

“What are you doing!? Turn that thing off!!” An old man (most likely in his seventies) suddenly yelled at me in the train, pointing violently toward my cellphone. I was on the phone with a friend as I walked in through the train doors, located next to the courtesy seating area. Offended, and somewhat confused, I reluctantly closed my phone. What the hell was his problem? I could see a hint of fear behind his angry eyes, but I didn’t understand how it related to the “Cellphones Off” signs posted all over the windows and handles surrounding the priority seats. Of course I had seen the signs but, seeing no logical reason for turning my cellphone off, I ignored them.

The man’s reaction still confused me. At the time, I was still in middle school and had never noticed the courtesy signs. My experience in the train alerted me to cellphone usage wherever I went, for fear that another old man would yell at me for being loud again. I came to notice people talking loudly on their cellphones on buses, my friends rudely texting mid-conversation, and cellphones ringing during class because they weren’t on vibrate mode. I even began to recognize the same habits in myself. Society seemed to have forgotten simple manners and consideration for others.

However, when I related the experience to my mother, she disagreed on the cause behind the man’s outburst. Was it possible that he had a heart condition and therefore depended on a pacemaker? She explained that pacemakers were little machines implanted by your heart that send small electric pulses to help it contract. In addition, the electric signals from a cellphone alone could interfere with and even break it if exposed to long enough. No wonder the man had panicked; my phone had posed a seri...

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...one to aid those who have heart problems or lesser known ailments? Epilepsy, a commonly known yet uncommonly regarded disease in which the diseased seizures by certain triggers, represents one condition which seems ignored by society. Where everyday flashing lights on billboards, city signs, TV commercials, or computer pop-ups may seem insignificant or merely annoying to some, to an epileptic they could be deadly.

Ignorance toward such disabilities shows society’s thoughtlessness towards these underrepresented groups, but out of ignorance, not cruelty. As children, we are taught the necessity for braille and ramps in school as well as how to respect the people who use them. Yet for some reason the learning stops at the handicaps we can see when there are still so many internal ones that need be considered as well. Awareness for these handicaps should be called for.