Rant of the day: we had better cell phone etiquette 20 years ago.
I can’t go to a family function these days without interrupting someone on his/her cell phone.
But back in 1994 Hong Kong, when I had this one way phone (outgoing calls)/pager, I could only make calls near a cell tower. The pages would come in anywhere, which once got me into trouble with a teacher I worked for.
I was a TA in a class I wasn’t qualified to teach, but that’s another story. On the first day of classes, my pager beeped at 9am on the dot with that day’s Hong Kong weather forecast. A handy piece of information in a city with volatile weather.
But the professor was not amused. In fact, he screamed at the class, warning them that if he ever hears a pager again in that class, he will kick that student out of the course.
I felt my face burn red, but fortunately he didn’t see that. I don’t think he suspected it was me, although perhaps later in the term he wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss my many faults (in his eyes at least!).
These days things have changed. Kids text, talk, and surf the internet on their phones during class. Maybe my professor had it right back then.
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