Cell Phones - Communication Abominations?

Had my final review for design this morning. I'm in the middle of presenting and reviewer #1's cell phone rings. Obviously we needed a "Please silence all phones, pagers, and small children" sign in the review space. R-U-D-E. So then he actually pulls the phone out of his pocket, looks at it, and says "Do you mind if I get this?" all seriously. Um, YES. YES I DO MIND. But I say "Sure" all sweetly cause what else am I supposed to say? Then I turn around to admire my perspective drawings. They really turned out quite nice if I do say so myself. I sort of had to fabricate a few lines to that one vanishing point that went 4 feet off my page. But whatever, I really like the little scale figures wearing those big brimmed, fuzzy rabbi hats. So, I'm waiting to hear reviewer #1 answer his phone and start yakkin', but there's nothing. I turn around. Apparently I am not good at sensing humorous statements because apparently he was KIDDING. Apparently. And I've been sitting there for 15 seconds admiring my scale figures with them (the reviewers, not the scale figures, cause that would be creepy) staring at my back, and I'd rather people not do that when I'm wearing horizontal stripes. The effect is not very flattering. Anyway, I got kind of frazzled after that. It's already hard enough to stay clam while defending what has basically turned into my entire life for a semester. I never want to see another t-square again. well, at least not for a few weeks...

But about the phone, somehow we got along without them until a few years ago. And now the little devices are attached to our hips. No really. My mom wears hers on her pants because when it rings she could never find it in her purse. I see little third graders walking around with phones. I don't think I even knew what a cell phone WAS in 3rd grade.

So, cell phones... good, bad, ugly? convenient communication or just harbingers of DOOM? Texting, car crashes, rude people in architecture reviews, kindergartners with phones, grandpas who can't work phones and hate them yet are only reachable on that line, moms who just can't work phones and have stopped pretending that they hate them. Everybody has a cell phone!! What happened to smoke signals? Morse Code? Dot Dot Dot Dashhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Thoughts?