Can I Use Your Phone?
It took a really long time to happen, but it finally happened to me today. Far too many times, I have been riding on the bus, and I see a rider ask another rider/stranger to use their cell phone for some reason or another. After seeing this a few times, I had to wonder how I would react in the same situation. In all of the instances that I have seen this happen, the phone owner always says “Yes.” I, on the other hand, said “No.”
There are many reasons that I have always figured that I would say “no.” For one, I am nice-nasty as my mom calls it. I just do not want strangers touching my phone or having it up to their ear. Yuck. I have no idea where they have been.
Two, I have a lot of personal stuff on my phone like everyone else (numbers, pictures, notes, emails, text messages). You could learn way too much about a person from exploring their phone. I want to protecet myself and people that I know.
Three, I pay a lot for these minutes. Why should I give them away for free to a stranger, especially one who claims to have a cell phone but cannot manage to keep it charged for whatever reason? I try to be as nice as possible, to strangers and friends alike, but that is their own irresponsibility. Plus, it was not an emergency.
Fourth, whoever receives a call from my phone has my number as a result. My number could then be easily used for spam or harrassment.
Fifth, I very recently saw the movie 12 Rounds. I remember how one of the bad guys asked to use Molly’s (Ashley Scott) phone on the ferry, which prevented her from getting a call from Danny (John Cena), which prevented her from getting off the ferry and aided in her being kidnapped successfully.
It is not that I think anyone is going through something as elaborate as that to do anything to me, but you never know what craziness people have planned these days. I could probably go on and on, so let me just stop here. “No” is, and will probably remain, my answer to “Can I use your cell phone?”
How It Played out Today
On my way to work today, a woman, who was sitting with a man, asked to use my phone to call her ride. This ride was supposed to pick her up from the bus stop when she got off the bus. She said that her battery was dead. Apparently, the guy with her did not have a phone, or maybe his battery was dead, too. What are the chances of that? In response, I simply answered “Sorry. I have limited minutes.”
Now this is true. I have 450 daytime minutes. That is nothing to some people, but I rarely use them all. Oddly enough, though, I have been using them somehow lately.
My response did not seem to bother the lady, though. She simply got up and asked someone else. This person said “Yes,” and the lady used the phone almost until I got off the bus, which was at least another five minutes.
I watched the lady out of the corner of my eye, and the same thing happened that happens with other people I have seen strangers use phones–the one who asks never seems to know how to dial. They fiddle with the phone a bit, and either the phone owner ends up dialing for them, or the one who asks eventually figures out how to make the call. She fiddled with the phone for quite a bit before she actually talked to anyone. I did not think anything of this until I saw this:
The Real Hustle: The Text Message Trap
If they are doing this in the UK, then they are probably doing it here, too. Scary. There is nothing really stopping a person who asks to make a call from sending a text while pretending to fumble with the dialing feature. As if my previous listed reasons were not enough to say, “No,” I have to now make that a resounding “No.”
Now, I propose the question to you “Can I use your phone?” Before you read this, would “Yes” have been your answer? Now that you have read this, would you say “Yes,” or would “No” be your reply? What circumstances would factor into your answer?
Read about someone else’s experience and the resulting comments on the “Can I use your phone?” question here.
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