Most people consider their cellphones to be vital, a device that they absolutely cannot live without.

I personally find them to be nuisances, and lament their very existence.

It would be different if people could be trusted to police themselves in terms of their usage, or if people tried to show some consideration for others when using cellphones. But this simply isn't going to happen.

How many times have you been sitting at a traffic light that's green because the person driving the car in front of you is too busy yakking into his or her cellphone to realize that the light is indeed green? How many times have you been in line at the grocery store, and the person in front of you can't be bothered to get off his or her phone long enough to interact with the cashier and actually have his or her money ready to complete the transaction?

How many times have you been sitting in a hospital, a place where "No Cellphone" signs are conspicuously placed all over the place, and had to put up with some inconsiderate dolt yammering away on his or her cellphone? How many times have you been in a place where quiet is expected, like a library or a bookstore, and been able to hear somebody yelling into his or her cellphone at top volume, talking about some inconsequential subject that nobody cares about?

Is it too much to ask that we institute some sort of code of conduct for public cellphone usage? Can we not mandate that there are certain places where cellphones absolutely shouldn't be tolerated? Can we not make sure that certain activities, such as driving, are done without the impairment of cellphones?

I have a cellphone. But when I go into public places, and I mean all public places, I turn it off. Just as it irritates me to hear somebody bellowing into his or her cellphone in a restaurant while I'm trying to have a meal with my family, I assume that my personal conversations on the cellphone would present a similar irritation to other diners.

As for driving while talking on a cellphone, I feel this way. It is an impairment, no different from drinking or anything else one might consider an impairment to one's ability to safely drive a vehicle. If you are engrossed in a conversation with a person who is not even in the vehicle, you may as well not even be there either, for all intents and purposes. I'm generally against the passing of laws that further curtail civil liberties, but in this instance, I think it would be more beneficial than

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