Cell Phones and Our New Society.

I am old enough to remember party lines and paying the phone company by the minute, much like cell phones were when they were first introduced. I also remember when cell phones were these huge clunky items you left in the car because they were so terribly unwieldy.
What I don't remember is when did we as a society become so self absorbed with our own self importance that common courtesy is ignored even in the face of posted rules.
If you have started wondering where this is leading I am going to explain.
I work for a community health center and see people all day long. My better half works for a utility in the local area and deals with the public all day long.
I have yet to see anything so rude as to be in a line to get groceries, pay a bill or get customer service and the person ahead of you has a cell phone stuck in their ear and trying to conduct business at the same time! For one thing that is just rude, period no other way to put it. Secondly it is extremely inconsiderate to the people behind that person who have to wait longer because that self absorbed person just has to continue yapping on the phone. There are a lot of businesses that have posted signs concerning cell phone usage while in line. Here we have signs posted that cell phone are not to be used inside the facility. I move around the building as part of my job and I can tell you in the past week I have had to tell at least four people a day that there is no cell phone usage allowed inside of the building. Most comply, occasionally I will get one like I did today that ignored me and continued with the conversation. Do people like that think that they are above the rules? Why do they feel that they have to have that phone shoved in their ears 24/7? Does it make them feel important?
I go to work rather early and here we are cruising down a windy two lane road with people whom have those things stuck in their ears! Mostly kids, with very little driving experience trying to navigate a windy road distracted by a cell phone! What I want to know for one is who in the hell has that much to say at 6:30 in the morning and why do kids feel that they can do something with less experience than and adult can with more experience!
The one that got me was an article about texting and driving! Now I do a lot of texting because of my kids, but in my wildest dreams would I ever have considered attempting to text while driving, yet the article state that kids do it often and while driving!
I would like to see laws in place to stop talking on cell phone while driving, period, no hands free or anything else. But who would enforce it? I see as many police officers doing it as regular folks! So who is going to police the police? As you can see no matter when or where it is, using a cell phone requires some manners and some common decency for usage in public. I guess manners and decency aren't in vogue any longer. I guess there are times I long for the days before cell phones.