Are Wireless Phones Annoying or the People Using Them?

This was the vitally important quiestion CBS news asked today:
"According to a recent survey, eight out of ten people say wireless phones improve their lives. However, six in ten people view wireless phones as a major irritation. CBS News' The Early Show series Cellular Nation takes a look at wireless phone etiquette and questions whether it is the wireless phone that drives people crazy or the people using the phones. Topping the list of offenses are persistent ringing, loud conversations and the shock of all-too-personal information. (Source: CBS News):

A few years back there was a paper presented at Ubicomp (missing a reference right now) that illustrated that people's perceptions of what was and was not appropriate cell phone use changed dramatically as they adopted cell phones. In fact, things they abhorred earlier seemed perfectly normal to them when they go to do it. Of course you can talk in public, on a bus or in a cafe. Ring tones are actually cute, not annoying! It's the old story of changes in expectations. It is not the devices that are annoying, it is the people that are using them. However, these devices do create a set of affordances that change the way we navigate the world and balance our expectations of it with our needs. It is these changes that end up encroaching on our personal social spaces demanding adjustment. It is not, of course, all the people that are using these devices that are annoying. Only those people who are not us... There is no remedy for this one, unfortunately.