The Gentlemen’s Rule: Dropped Call Etiquette
This article was originally published on Just A Guy Thing.
By Caleb Bacon
Your parents didn’t teach you ce
ll phone etiquette. Otherwise, the following conversation wouldn’t chill your bones with deja vu.
“Hey, we just lost each other,” you say into your Blackberry. “I had four bars. How many bars did you have?”
Your cell phone conversation had been prematurely cut short courtesy of some technological shortcoming known as the Dropped Call.
“Three bars, maybe four,” your friend replies, unsure. “I have Sprint, but I had AT&T for six years. But that was two years ago.”
“I was talking to Julie the other day and this same thing happened,” he says into his new iPhone. “I think it was from those sunspots. You hear about those?”
You recall, “There was this great article…” And it continues.
For some bizarre, addicting reason, people love talking about Dropped Calls. It’s as though your pseudo-tech-talk confirms your genius.
When actually, talking about talking — or not talking — isn’t really talking at all. It’s not the behavior of Gentlemen.
The Rule
Do not spend more than one sentence addressing the Dropped Call. If you can’t come up with a sentence (talkers-block,) try this on:
“Our call was dropped.”
Then talk about something amazing, or something mundane — just not the Dropped Call.
For fans of brevity, “So, anyway,” is great because it mutually, and silently, expresses that the call was dropped, and that bastard by-product of cellular progress earns no respect.
Fight the urge. Squash Dropped Call curiosity. Do not ask questions. Do not answer them. Instead, Pass Go. Collect $200. You earned it.
You’ll be amazed at how much this Gentlemen’s Rule frees up.
Since adopting it, I have an extra 35 minutes each day. I’ve been looking both ways before crossing the street, paying my taxes, and tutoring young women (Freshman only) at my local junior college.
