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Don't cell out: Kill the earpiece
By Brandon Pearce
bpearce1@mscd.edu

Surely in the late ’90s, some businessman who used his cell phone for work quipped, “If I could attach this thing to my ear, I would.” Well, some entrepreneur took him seriously and in 1999, Bluetooth headsets arrived on the scene. The alarming thing is that today, people are forgetting that the idea of attaching your cell phone to your ear was a joke.

I have recently noticed a troubling amount of headset chutzpah. For example, there was the husband I saw on a date with his wife who went the whole meal without taking the device off. Did she feel like she was important to him?

Then, I couldn’t help but stare at an oblivious man sitting at a choir concert with a blinking wireless headset stuck to his ear. He had to be joking, right?

Last semester, I watched in disbelief as a fellow student gave his entire oral presentation to the class while wearing one. Was he really going to take a call right then?

I was revolted by the scene of a man at a funeral, not in the audience, but giving the eulogy from the pulpit with a Bluetooth headset in his ear! Was he receiving revelation wirelessly?

I am not opposed to someone using a wireless headset while at work, in the car or doing housework. Compared to wearing an ear bud that is leashed to your cell phone, it is a far superior invention. However, too many people use them not as cellular communication devices, but as social communication devices. The problem is, the message is a getting garbled.

The wearer is saying, “I’m so important I can’t remove this device. I may miss a very important call.”

The viewer is hearing, “You’re not important enough for me to take my phone off my ear and listen to you.”

The wearer is saying, “I’m technologically savvy.”

The viewer is hearing, “Technically, I’m rude.”

The wearer is saying, “I’m sophisticated.”

But the viewer is hearing, “I’m a jerk.”

We may not agree on exactly where and when it is appropriate to use a cell phone, or its wireless attachments. What seems rude to one person seems practical to another. But let’s all agree on one thing: If you are somewhere you would not take a cell phone call, take your headset off as well. The joke is no longer funny.