It seems these days, that you can’t go out in public without hearing a ring, ding, buzz or seeing light emitted from a phone. The notification always seems to interrupt during a crucial scene in a movie, an important discussion in a classroom, or a conversation in a restaurant, reading in a doctors office, airport, or while you are driving and your friends are in your car. You can be deciding what to eat for dinner in a grocery store and you hear someone talking on the phone, or you are picking up your coffee at Starbucks and the cashier can’t hear you because the person next to you is talking to someone else on their phone. You get the idea. And to confirm the annoyance, the individual whose phone it is; always stops what they are doing, never mutes it, takes the call, and then says to you “they never do this”, and then, it becomes all about them.

Well, I think it’s Rude! And totally Obnoxious! And I’m sick of it. Because you are suddenly not that important. People are addicted to Notifications! They can’t not answer and not respond after receiving them.

Before every class that I teach, I make an announcement to please silence your mobile devices. There is a sign in my classroom. I have had arguments with friends who use their phones in my car (other than for directions) – I ask my friends to mute their phones when we are out together. And if they don’t like it… well then you need a thick skin and you will find out really fast who your real friends are.

I have actually gotten up and walked away from the disturbance. Everywhere we go there are signs, and previews, actually telling people to silence their phones and if they do ring, ding, or buzz – and of course NOT to answer or respond to them.

But everyone, it seems, continues to ignore these warnings because they just don’t care. They have excuses for why they keep their phones on, and why their lives are more important that yours.

It’s very rare, these days, to actually go out in public and not hear a ring, ding or buzz or see a person answer or talk on their phone in public.

My own phone is always on the do not disturb private moon setting. I’m one of those people that won’t talk in public. Which drives my friends crazy. If I do have to make or answer a phone call, I silently text or I walk away to a private location.

The crazy part is that most folks are worried about their Privacy – but you’d never know this because all they do is talk out loud in public. And they always seem to talk louder while out in public. And who knows who is really listening. They are trusting that whatever and whomever they are talking about doesn’t care about what they are hearing.

Every app and each device has its own notification settings. Email, texting, messaging, web browser, and inside the actual app – why do we need to be notified so many ways? You can turn these off! And you can just silence your phone.

How do you do this? Go to Settings > Tap Notifications > And Turn them Off! Or Go to Do Not Disturb (privacy moon setting) > Silence. And remember that vibrate on silent makes noise too 😉

Thank you very much for this public service announcement. I can stop gritting my teeth now 😉