To speaker or not to speaker. There is no question.

So, I was sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office today when I heard a phone ring loudly. It's a large waiting room, serving several doctors, and there were quite a few people waiting, and I was all the way at the end away from the reception desk, so I was pretty sure it wasn't the switchboard phone I was hearing. But whoever's phone it is, they weren't answering. After an eternity, one of the other patients finally answers - it was his cell phone.

The call was from Sprint. It was a courtesy call to see if the phone owner needed anything. I know this because the patient answered the phone IN SPEAKER MODE. Yes - like a Nextel, more popularly known as The Most Annoying Phone Ever.

Not to all speakerphone users: none of the rest of us want to hear your conversation. We really don't. It's not only boring, it's annoying. And with the thing on speaker, you're yelling. I promise you, you're talking louder than you would if you were holding the phone to your ear/mouth.

Now, I'm all about cell phones. I'm not one of those people who wrings my hands and spouts off about how I wish I didn't have to have one, but I need it for safety purposes or work purposes or some other excuse. I love my cell phone. I feel naked if I leave home with out it accidentally. Nextel walkie-talkie style communication, however, is an abomination. It's audal rape. I'm forced against my will to listen to your conversation - both sides.

So, here's the rule: If you're in the privacy of your car or some other non-public space, talk on speaker to your heart's content. But if you're in public, either answer your phone in private mode, where you can keep your voice down and those around you don't have to listen to the Sprint guy asking you if there's anything you need or your wife giving you a grocery list or your co-worker asking how the thingamajig fits the whosits joint on the gefeltefish machine, then just send the call to voice mail and return it later when you're not in a waiting room, restaurant, movie theater, bus or place where people around you can't just walk away while you yell into the receiver. Trust me - people will like you better.