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| Yes | 37% | 891 votes | Total: 2397 votes | |
| No | 63% | 1506 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesCell phones act as a nuissance to other customers who are in the same position of trying to enjoy their own free time by eating and drinking well in a restauranct. I could be with my family or with my girlfriend and all of a sudden I hear a different ringtone sounding off by chance and all of a sudden I look around and here someone else making me think what is so important that a phone went off. Being in a restaurant surely demands personal manners and ettiquette and it is this annoyance of sometimes it is a medium annoyance where the phone ring is heard and the speech thereafter is quiet and peaceful. Not all the time does this happen as in some restaurants it is one person after another trying to talk to each other.
Electrical interference of being in a room with many people talking to others on their mobile phones also makes me feel a bit nervous and jumpy in that to a certain extent I can feel the energy of the frequency of the mobile phone calls. All in all this affecting my stay and my overall enjoyment in going out to eat and drink. I am like everyone else paying good money and having my experience ruined by other customers who are on business or on leisure calls who appear in a rush or perhaps want to make themselves known.
If I was a restauranter I perhaps would not say one way or the other as I would need the custom from all people, though on a neutral basis I find the cell phones more of a nuissance than there was in place when there was cigarette smoking.
Not only does the mood and ambience inside the restaurant become affected, the image of the restaurant is also at stake here. The impression at restaurants of having customers that regularly make or receive ad hoc calls results in a much tense atmosphere as the social aspect of going to a restaurant and talking to someone else. There are some cell phones that have a head set and to some peoples thinking that this communication is off putting in terms for viewing those people talking to themselves. The phone itself might not be visible though someone through a headset or headpiece is talking to someone else. Some of the time, some people are using their cell phone by talking loudly and engaging in disruptive arguments, perhaps talking in foreign languages and this is a monsterous activity that does take place in restaurants.
So therefore I would blanket ban these cell phones everywhere in public and including in pubs and restaurants.
Learn more about this author, Costas Chryanthou.
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No
To be frank, I'm surprised such a debate as this exists. Of course, no, cell phones should not be banned in restaurants. There really is no persuasive enough reason for them to be barred, to my mind at least.
Ok, I think most of us can agree or are able to see why it is important to ban cell phones whilst driving- that is a matter of safety. To be absorbed in conversation and perhaps steering with one-hand clearly endangers other road-users. However, utilizing a cell phone in a restaurant puts no one in danger and thus the extreme measure of outlawing them is completely unnecessary.
In the past few years, many bans have been brought about such as a smoking in public places and cell phone use whilst driving. Cell phones are very often prohibited from being used at the work-place, school, hospitals, public waiting rooms and many other public arenas. We don't want to slide into a society whereby we have our rights taken away, to live under too many restrictions. Give the general public the benefit of the doubt- for the large majority of cell phone users are discreet when speaking on the phone and act accordingly to their situation. Don't make them suffer for the few that perhaps disturb the peace when making calls in public. Even these few do not deserve to have the right to use their cell phone in a restaurant taken away- for they are not harming or endangering any other customers. This would be a nicety law- not an essential one for people's welfare and these nicety laws we can do without. Let us not create a Big Brother society.
As previously stated, most of us are respectful to other diners when making use of our phones in a restaurant. The user will often lower their voice rendering it almost impossible to over-hear their conversation from a table away, especially in a bustling environment.
Cell phones are equipped with vibratory alerts or volume controls so that if it rings other restaurant patrons will not hear a loud ring tone. Many also sit their phones besides them or at least in easy reach whilst eating and can thus retrieve the handset quickly should it go off. After all, it is rare to find a restaurant patron who wishes to be embarrassed with a shrilling call alert tone that continues to sing for a minute or so, causing all the other diners to cast disapproving glances their way. No, the general public tends to be discreet and sensitive to the desires of other fellow customers.
Anyway, it is often times important to be contactable whilst in a restaurant. Take the married couple who are perhaps out for a well-earned Saturday evening away from their young children who remain at home being looked after by a young babysitter. What if a problem arose at their home and the baby sitter needed to urgently get hold of the parents? Perhaps the toddler had a fall down the stairs or the baby had developed a sinister fever in their absence. Yes, you could argue, if cell phones were banned the baby sitter could call the restaurant and ask to speak with them but what if they hadn't decided where they were to eat before they left the house? And think of the time it would take to go through a middle man and then for the parents to be located in the restaurant. It is far from practical.
The average American eats out twice a week- that amounts to a significant time in eateries, restaurants and diners. Emergency calls will therefore inevitably have to be made during these times and so a law prohibiting the use of cell phones could have disastrous consequences. People need to be contactable and some may be put off eating out if they couldn't have access to their phones.
Think of the poor lady who has arrived at a restaurant for a date. Her dinner partner fails to show and she is left alone at a table. Should she not be permitted to call her gentlemen friend to enquire as to his whereabouts from the comfort of her own table without the further indignity of having to collect her belongings and make the call outside in the cold? I'm sure most of us have the compassion to allow her to remain where she is to use her cell phone.
So we see it is more imperative to authorize the use of personal phones then not to in the setting of restaurants. Yes, it's polite to ignore the cell phone or switch it off for the sake of not potentially arousing other diners, but in reality calls need to be exchanged.
A perturbed restaurant patron will survive in the worst case scenario of having his quiet meal disturbed by a noisy adjacent cell phone user. However, someone who misses an emergency call for the sake of a superfluous, needless law may not be able to live with the repercussions.
Laws are made fundamentally to protect. In this case it is simple; we don't require such protection from cell phone users in restaurants
Learn more about this author, Yvette Durham.
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