CELLPHONE penetration is at an all time high with many users owning two devices.

As of June this year, statistics from the Infocomm Development Authority show that total mobile subscriptions reached a high of about 6.51 million, which includes both 2G and 3G services.

Of these more than 2.73 million are 3G subscriptions.

With more people looking favourably on using two cellphones, the figures will inch up again.

Why do you need two phones? Well, NSmen may need two: One for in-camp where no-camera phones are allowed and another latest smartphone for out-of-camp use.

I’ve seen contractors who use two phones, presumably one for customers, the other for workers.

My friends are also turning up with two phones: a Blackberry device so that they can access corporate e-mail and an another to make calls.

With everyone owning a cellphone, social behaviour has changed too.

Among the teens and young adults, they are seen everywhere phone-in-hand. They’re naked without the gizmo.

When they’re seated together, it is perfectly alright to talk, send text messages, access e-mail or browse the Surf.

For the older generation, this would be considered rude.

But how do you assess the behaviour of a person who uses the phone in the toilet? Is it rude, unhygienic or both?

Most times I can’t help but overhear whispered arguments, gossip about other people or making arrangements to meet. Isn’t the toilet the last place for these private discussions? Usually the toilet partitions are thin and they don’t go all the way up to the ceiling.

So much for being private, not to mention how unhygienic it is to hold the gizmo with one hand and ahem, wipe your comely private parts with the other.

Another occurence is in the cinema. Have you also seen little bright screens popping up here and there among the movie goers in the pitch dark cinema hall?

Movie perators have succeeded in getting 99.99 per cent of viewers to put their phones on silent. So they don’t talk now but they are inclined to peek at their messages and reply to them.

While the cellphone coverage in Singapore is good, there are instances where spotty signals can cut off the conversation.

Some people don’t call back even if the call was already ending when it was cut off.

When it happens to me, I call back to apologise and end the call properly. I don’t want to appear to have hung up on my friends or newsmakers.

New technology provides conveniences and influences our behaviour.

Generally, friends and even people you’re meeting for the first time would not mind if you’ve to check your email or text messages.

If there’s an urgent call to take, they would not mind if you excuse yourself.

But technology’s conveniences shouldn’t be taken to the extreme when private affairs are played out in the toilet, thanks to cellphones.

Really, the toilet should be used for just what they are meant: disposing organic waste.

chngkeg@sph.com.sg