Picture this. You are sitting in class and listening intently. In the middle of the lecture, a cell phone rings loudly, disrupting your thoughts. As the owner of the phone scrambles to get her phone out of her purse, you and your fellow classmates have lost your train of thought.

Or how about this? You are on a date with a boyfriend or girlfriend. As you sit together in the movie theater, someone's cell phone rings, leaving the audience angry and impatient for the phone to be turned off.

The fact is, cell phones have been a wonderful addition to communication, but as with everything, there is an appropriate time and place for them. Many people have begun to feel that they are incomplete without their cellular phones -- not only with them, but turned on constantly.

It is understandable that cell phones have definitely simplified many lives, but some have not understood what an interruption like the ring of a cell phone an actually cause.

So the question is, when are cell phones appropriate? If you are one of the many people who believe they must carry it on themselves all the time, do the rest of us a favor and have an understanding of when it's appropriate. If you are in a sit-down restaurant, it is courteous to at least turn the ringer or sound off. Likewise, if you are in a movie, play or lecture, please keep your phones on vibrate, or just turn them off. While it is hard to remember, we did manage without cell phones, and can still.

Obviously, cell phones can also be a lifesaver. In the instance of an emergency, nothing can replace the convenience and speed of a cell phone. Having that phone with you may have been what helped your mother make it to the hospital in time after she had a stroke.

In order to solve this problem, it is up to you to figure out the rules of common courtesy. Just keep in mind how you'd feel if someone else's cell phone rang on the "big night out" or in the play you've been wanting to see all summer. Let's all be courteous of each other.

Sarah Hartley is a sophomore Communications major from Clarksville.