For anyone who has traveled outside of the Adirondacks lately, you may have experienced a rude awakening. Living in Lake Placid and the surrounding region can sometimes be so idyllic that you soon forget about the technological wonder that is the rest of the world. I realize that slowly but surely some of us are being dragged into the 21st century. This is a blog you are reading, after all. But there is something to be said for the fact that the cell phone epidemic that is plaguing everywhere else has not yet had a serious outbreak here in the North Country.
Outside of the region, ringtones abound with everything from Hip-hop to an antique telephone circa Alexander Graham Bell. You can hear about the guy sitting next to you, about his granddaughter’s ballet recital and about how he will spend his winnings from his latest trip to AC (Atlantic City). You cannot help but listen in to the argument the woman sitting across from you is having with her boyfriend (how could he be so insensitive?) or the read the text message the teenager in line ahead of you is sending to his girlfriend about the anime DVD that he just downloaded to his IPod, rather than paying attention to the movement of the line causing one’s blood pressure to rise to the elevation of Whiteface.
It is almost tough to say which is more inconsiderate: eavesdropping on someone’s public telephone conversation or hashing out your personal life in such a public way. Until recently, we simply have not had the cell service in the region to facilitate such a nuisance. But with the service in this area improving, who is responsible to develop the new rules regarding public cell phone conversations? While this debate is ongoing in other areas, there certainly has not been a successful development of a true etiquette for cell phone use. Otherwise, those of us who travel outside the area, even for a day, would not be so acutely aware of the private lives of the strangers we encounter.
Maybe it is the small town reality that we face each day that prevents us from being obnoxious in public? The fear that what you say will be repeated throughout town, by everyone, for weeks, maybe even years, that stops us from dishing out our private matters in the public eye. So how do we convey to visitors that the cell phone tactics they use at home are not the norm here?
Some establishments, like the Mirror Lake Inn, have a no cell phone policy in their public areas. Many restaurants request that guests turn their phones off during a meal or step outside to take a call. This is easy to sell in July, but not so much in February. The deep stares of most diners ultimately convince cell phone users to take it outside, though. A while back there was even discussion about using cell phone jammers in movie theaters. This practice is currently still illegal except to military and government personnel.
So what is the answer? Let us know what y
ou think.
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