Is courtesy totally dead?

I don't think it is yet, but it's getting there. The main offender, in my opinion, is cell phones. I've been in a few doctor's offices in the past weeks, and they all had signs saying, "Please, no cell phone usage in the office," or something to that effect. But people would just ignore them and talk away, and rather loudly. Personally, I would rather go somewhere private if I'm having a conversation on the phone.

I just got a cell phone 2 years ago. My wife had one from her work, but then they took it away, but she got one on her own. She was after me to get one because I go to work early in the morning and on back roads, so there's not a lot of pay phones or friendly country people awake at that hour. My sister's wedding was 2 weeks after I got it, and it came in extremely handy that day, but I don't think I've used it much since then. It's good to have it, but we (as a country) made it at least 100 years without cell phones, didn't we? Change with the changing times, I suppose.

I try to be courteous when I use my cell phone. I always have it on vibrate, so no one else will no if it's ringing, because no one else NEEDS to know if my phone is ringing. If I am at a checkout in a store and my phone rings, I don't answer it (this has only happened twice). Even if the person doesn't leave a voicemail, you have the number, so you can always call them back. I have been one of those jerks that talks on the phone while driving, sorry if you were behind me. Like I said, I don't get a lot of calls, but if I have to make a call while I'm in the car, I try to do it when the car is not moving. I should pull over when I get a call, but I don't always do that. I should figure out how to use the speaker phone. I have seen too many bad driving examples where the person was holding a cell phone in one hand. But really, who hasn't?

This is not really about courtesy, I see. It's more of a rant on cell phones. But it's not really, it's more about cell phone users. Our contract is up next month, but we're not getting rid of them. We're looking into the pay-as-you-go phone plans; we have to figure out if it would be less than what we're paying now. We looked at some at Wal-Mart yesterday, but it was very confusing. More research is needed.