24 March 2006

A Modest Proposal on the Requirement of an Additional Accessory for Users of Bluetooth Headsets

The type of people who use and wear their bluetooth headsets (typical photo of a representative user pictured above, absconded by me from this review) everywhere they go all the time represent a challenge to the rest of the folks around them.

In shops, at restaurants, at work, at play, on the streets, when you see these folks staring off into space, sometimes gesticulating, other times raising their voices, or just plain chattering at odd moments, you suspect that they are crazy, but instead are confronted with the worse likelihood that they are self-important and rude.

Rather than banning the practice, or telling them off when they rudely ignore the real world people around them while they wrap themselves up in their own (too often, too loud) conversations, I suggest requiring an additional piece of equipment by statute to be distributed with these devices.



A battery operated, bluetooth enabled, light-up red clown nose must be worn on the end of the probiscis of any user of such devices (above example, taken from this commercial site for all your clowning needs, can serve as an imprecise illustration of the concept I'm suggesting). To fail to do so would subject the user to a large fine, and possible jail time, no exceptions are to be made.

The nose would be worn in conjuction with the headset at all times, if you have one of those things on your ears then you'll need to have one of those red things on your nose. The light would indicate that the user is in conversation, and therefore should be disregarded in any normal social real world social activity. People in line at a grocery store could jump in front of anyone whose nose was lit, waiters could know not to stop by at a table occupied by a lit nose patron, and passersby on the street would know that the rantings and gesticulations of a nearby pedestrian of suspect mental competency was merely a phone conversation.

It's a simple suggestion, even a modest one, but one that will improve everyone's lives (except maybe the folks who can't live without their headset) in a small but ultimately satisfying way.


[This post was partially inspired by this post by The Advice Goddess (Amy Alkon) also in the comments are an interesting conversation between Amy and Cathy Seipp (who is a brilliant writer, and one I should link to more often, and while I'm thinking about her, am adding to my blogroll) about Amy's choices in levels of detail regarding describing the gentleman who inspired the post (who she captured from behind with her celphone camera)]

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