Everywhere I go, strange ringing and beeping electronic melodies break me out of my reveries and into other students’ conversations. While people have every right to talk on their cell phones in public, perhaps their habits of doing so could be more polite.

I’m sure everyone can think of times they were in the middle of studying for a test or writing a paper or daydreaming about meeting Homer Simpson when they suddenly were interrupted by someone’s phone jingling nearby. The sound may have seemed less disturbing when compared with its owner’s loud discussions about long-distance plans and being late to class.

Because of the dependency many people have on cell phones, I think carrying them around all the time is not a beneficial practice. I’ve noticed that students use cell phones as sources of comfort – the familiarity of a friend’s voice eases the difficulties of a bad day and allows the sharing of a good day. While this is beneficial, many people seem unable to pull themselves away from their phones for longer than a class period. Developing this dependency on cell phones only makes life more hectic.

I’ve observed that when class gets out, many of the students pull out their cell phones, dial friends’ numbers and proceed to describe their morning from what brand of soap they used in the shower to what they’re doing the rest of the day.

The callers may lose the instinct of making independent decisions on their own because friends are just a memory dial away.

This could be prevented if students would call friends when they have something more to say than, “Hey, I should be working on that paper right now….”

Further, when cell phone fanatics become involved in their discussions, they often raise their voices. This can be very distracting for people sitting nearby, politely studying fish anatomy or reading the latest John Grisham novel.

Even if there is a good story to be told, chances are every person in the room doesn’t need to hear it. To avoid these conflicts of interest, taking such phone calls outside is a simple solution.

Between classes, I like to do homework on a bench in Phillips next to a window that overlooks the creek. In the morning it’s quiet and peaceful, and between math problems, I like to watch the squirrels scampering up the trees outside.

A few days ago, however, I was privileged to view a pair of mallards cleaning their feathers in the creek directly beneath me. I was so immersed in watching this scene that I nearly forgot I was in school and not in the woods. But then a discussion about a broken hair dryer interrupted the tranquility. I turned to the source of the outburst to see if the owner of the voice was going to survive the day, certain she had a sympathetic friend nearby. Instead, I saw a girl talking on her cell phone.

Furthermore, I think cell phones should not replace people. Often when I’m stuck hearing people’s conversations, I can detect that the friends on the other ends of the lines are not very far away. Often, the speaker will say something like, “Where are you … oh, you’re outside of Hibbard?”

Students have become so used to a push-button society that it’s easy to ignore common sense and become too lazy to simply meet the friends in question. If people just make the effort to walk from the library to Phillips, chances are their conversations will be less filled with trifles because that short walk will give them time to decide what they want to discuss.

I realize there are a lot of cell phone users who do their chatting outside, where they do not disrupt others. If the other cell phone users would begin to follow that lead, the cell phone annoyances could be kept to a minimum.

Therefore, while cell phones are good tools for communication, they should be used less devotedly but more conservatively and considerately.