By now you have probably noticed that every other kid has a cellphone.  (When my kids bugged me for one I gave them a can with a string in it.  They were not amused.)  Cellphones are handy tools to stay in touch, take photos, play songs, do math, keep you company on a lonely night and light the way in the dark.  In the near future most cell phones will have a GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) receiver in them so that parents can not only hear that you are okay, but they can also see if you really are at the mall or not.

But some people are slaves to their cellphones.  They HAVE to answer the crummy things no matter where they are or what they are doing.  They run out of the movies when their cell phone starts vibrating (or are thrown out if it starts ringing).

Some people have no sense about using cell phones politely.  Believe it or not, one kid at our church had his cellphone ring during the sermon.  Not only did he answer his phone, but he also actually was having a conversation while everyone else was listening – or trying to listen – to the pastor.  Even worse, he was in the front row.  And boy was he embarrassed when the pastor stopped his sermon and asked him not to do his personal phone business during church.

Cellphones should be turned off when in church.  (And other places as well).  If you break conversation in order to answer a call from another friend, you are rude.  Oh, and cellphones should not be used to store pictures your mother wouldn’t want you to have, either!

Using a phone’s text sending feature is one of the most common uses of cellphones.  A lot of people feel some kind of weird need to respond to a text no matter what they are doing or where they are.  Just like answering you cellphone in the middle of a conversation or meeting, texting while someone is trying to talk to you or while other more important things are going on is rude and inconsiderate.

There is a power feature on every cellphone – if you are one of those people who can’t resist checking text messages and then firing one back, turn the thing off when you should have your concentration someplace else.

If you like to be part of social networking, please be yourself – and keep in mind that cyber friends are not to be confused with real flesh-and-blood friends.  For some people, the ease of making “friends” and connecting with people via computers, texting, and who knows what else, is a poor substitute for actually having friends to hang out with and actually doing fun things with them.