Everywhere I go it seems as if people are addicted to their cell phones. At work tonight we got into a heated debate about why there exists the necessity, habit, obligation to check your messages or read the the latest text or make a call.
So I told several of them how annoyed I would be if a hiker/backpacker had one too often in their hands or to their ear and I was anywhere nearby. And I offered to get some hiking audience feedback.
So, on the AT, to what degree would you allow yourself to get to before becoming annoyed or bothered by someone using their cell phone? What would be considered too often? Would once every night be okay? Would you ask them to step away from the campsite/shelter? Would you consider then to be rude if they did indeed use it too often? Ya know, like taking it out at viewpoints to call people and say "Guess where I am?".
My view of this situation is this: I don't care if you bring a cell, but don't carry it so there is convenient access. Don't pull it out at viewpoints, river crossings, animal sightings(except rare ones), every rest stop, on boring sections of trail, during long bouts of bad weather, at your campsite/shelter, and please don't look at it every hour just to see if anyone has tried to contact you. There are good reasons why you are out there, and one of the strongest was to get away from phones!!
Would I carry one on the trail? Yes, for safety, the ability to call a PO if I am running behind, to call my pick up at a road crossing, or to order that pizza at the Partnership Shelter. Other than that, it stays in the bottom of my pack.
So please, give me your honest and forthright answer to this.