The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.
Is that your ego ringing?
: All the time, I’m on the street and hear somebody else’s phone ring and I check mine (even though I should know it’s not my ring). Ego calling.
This morning I was listening to (surprise! surprise) Howard Stern and Courtney Love called his cell phone, which rang on the air. Howard has a Treo. I have a Treo. I grabbed my phone. I thought it was mine ringing.
I think that’s pathetic, but I’m not sure.
Nah, it’s called “beepilepsy” — the spasmodic grab when you hear a cell phone ring, no matter whose it is. Happens to everyone.
I’ve got mine set to say “you have an incoming call” as a ring. I don’t twitch as much, but I sure am getting to hate that voice.
Ah, but Charlie, I have to say that in an airport one day, a guy had his phone saying that and he didn’t answer it and I wanted to shoot at least his phone and yell at him: Well, of course you have an incoming call; why else would your phone be ringing?
No, it’s just normal, not pathetic. I haven’t had small children for 30 years and I still look around in the grocery store when a little voice says “Mama”, maybe that’s pathetic but it’s probably just Pavlovian. I also flinch when I hear the type ring I have for my cell phone even when I know I don’t have the phone with me!
FWIW, it could have been worse. Courtney Love could have been calling you.
Jeff, if I could resist answering the phone at all I wouldn’t have changed. This just means I know when it’s my phone.