Shut up and fly

Posted May 22nd, 2008 at 5:42 pm by Nicki Dugan, Blog Editor

 3 Comments / Filed in: Poll

There’s a lot of debate lately about cell phones in the air. Do we want to be connected and productive with carryons securely stashed in overhead bins? Or do we like the excuse of being fully disconnected at 30,000 feet? Would we welcome the ability to make calls on our mobiles, or would we rather send a lynch mob to seat 19D?

Turns out 74% of consumers don’t want to hear you yacking with your office cohorts, but they wouldn’t mind a bit if you sent them a text message. A new survey commissioned by Yahoo! and conducted by Harris Interactive revealed that nearly three out of four consumers agree that mobile phone usage on planes should be restricted to silent features. The majority of us want to stay connected to our life on the ground. Email, text, IM, games — all good. But if we have to sit next to you making goo-goo with your girlfriend in Gilroy, game over.

What’s more, more than two-thirds think there should be a designated talking section. Hey, it worked so well with smoking. Why not?

So how about you? Want to participate in our entirely statistically-invalid random sampling?

Will Yodel Anecdotal readers agree that silence is golden?

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Tagged: mobile, Poll, survey

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3 Comments Add your own

alex_mayorga | May 23rd, 2008 at 9:38 am

The question should be multiple choice. I would take email and SMS in that order.

Brian | May 24th, 2008 at 7:47 am

The poll choices don’t coincide with the article very well. My choice would have little to do with what I want, but instead would be driven by what I’d be willing to put up with the passenger in the seat next to me doing.

Personally I’m all for the silent features only policy. I can do plenty with texting and email. My fear is that once the phone is on it is up to the airline staff to enforce the no phone call rule. And, having seen how well they enforce carry-on bag and other policies (I still see people carrying on a guitar or cross-country skis more often than not), I’m not exactly confident that that will work.

Mark | May 22nd, 2009 at 1:53 pm

Be careful, next law that comes out of Transportation Committee of Congress will ban crying babies and all conversation with your neighbors while flying on an aircraft, riding on a bus, taking a taxi, etc……….

Personally, if the person sitting next to me wants to make a $7/minute phone call, it is OK with me. I have my noise cancelling headset on, for completely different reasons.