13% of Cell Owners Pretend to Talk to Avoid Human Contact.
That&#39;s It?S  The stat diggers at Pew dug up a new gem: in
their nationally representative survey, "13% of cell owners
pretended to be using their phone in order to avoid interacting
with the people around them." This seems very, very low.  Part
of the beauty of the ubiquitous phone is the ubiquitous excuse.
See someone walking down the sidewalk who you'd like to avoid?
Say, an old college acquaintance to whom you have nothing at all
to say? And never did? And kind of always hated? Out comes the
phone! I have a great scripted fake phone call script, always
sounding like some urgent news has just been relayed to me:
What? She said that? Are you sure? Okay—I'm on my way. Well,
just wait. Oh, wow—okay I'm coming right now.  Etc. And it
always works! The phone, a device for communicating, is just as
wonderfully useful at blocking communication. And in a society
where constant communication becomes an expectation, being able
to tacitly say I CANT TALK