We didn’t think we needed a poll to find this one out, but a new poll in the States has found that just about everyone – including fellow mobile users – get annoyed by people talking loudly on their phones in public.
The AP-AOL-Pew poll questioned people’s attitudes towards mobile phones and although most declared their phones to be very useful things, nearly 90 per cent said that they encountered others being annoying on their phones.
In a fabulous act of self righteous denial, a mere 8 percent thought that their own public yakking could possibly be seen as sometimes rude too.
Hooked on handsets
The survey found that more than two-thirds of mobile users say they’d find it hard to be parted from their precious phones, while a hardcore 26 percent said they couldn’t imagine life without their mobile.
Half of mobile users say that they keep their phones permanently on, while seventy five percent say that they have used it in an emergency.
The convenience of mobile phones has its drawbacks too, with around twenty five percent complaining that they’re bothered by too many calls, and over a third of those interviewed moaning that their service bills were sometime “shocking.”
More worryingly, an idiotic 28 percent admitted to not driving a safely as they might because they were chatting on their mobile.
Multimedia is for da kidZ
Although most phone users stuck to the basics, annoying others with their public calls, growing feature sets are tempting users to fork out for phones with built-in cameras, MP3 players, games and Internet/e-mail access.
We’re not quite sure of the significance of this, but the survey found that “young adults and minorities” liked multimedia handsets best and were more likely than “older adults and whites” to text, take snaps, surf the web and play tunes on their phones.
Texting finally starts to take off in the States
Text messaging is nowhere near as popular in the States as it is in Europe and Asia, with a mere one-third of U.S. cell phone owners giving their keypads some texting action.
However, this text messaging may be set to cross over to the mainstream with two-thirds of American users between 18 and 29 year olds now using the service.
Not surprisingly, multimedia gizmos also found more favour with young adults, with over half using the camera functions on their phones, 47 percent playing games and 28 percent using the Internet.