Pet
Peeve Personal Essay: Phone Snatchers
One of the few things that irritate me, however
irrational it may be, is when I am showing someone something on phone and they
deem it necessary to grab the phone out of my hand without a second thought. It
seems to come as natural to people as drinking water. They just grab it out of
your hand without even giving any consideration that the phone is not theirs. This
has occurred on several different occasions with my brother. I will be showing
him something on my phone and he just grabs it out of my hand like he was
stealing money and leans back to where he was. Perhaps even more irritating is
when someone does this when I am showing them a video. Just the other day I was
showing my friend a youtube video on my phone, and sure enough, he grabbed it
out of my hand. This was not all that happened though. No he also accidentally
backed out of the video and then selected another video, so one can see where I
am coming from with this. This is not just limited to videos and pictures
however. People also do this with songs. Last week I wanted to show my friend a
song and gave him my ear buds and what does he do? He grabs the phone. Now if
you ask me, one only needs ear buds to listen to a song, but perhaps I am
missing something.
This peeve of mine also affects my actions, but definitely
only the most extreme with my brother, as I can hit him and get away with it.
No I am not saying I would hit someone else over this. When my brother does do
this I usually just end up punching him … hard and grabbing my phone back, well
because were brothers. My reaction is much less forceful with other people. If
it is one of my friends that take the phone, I usually just suck it up and let
them have the phone; however, my peeve has definitely caused people to miss out
on some pretty funny pictures, so I guess it is their loss.
One specific example of this occurring is of course with
my brother. One day after school we were both sitting on the couch watching TV
and I was on the popular app ifunny on my phone. I came across this hilarious
picture, the one that is far funnier than any before it. Everyone has seen one.
Any way I was seriously laughing and said, “Oh my god that’s hilarious!” Of
course my brother wanted to see what was so funny and asked “what is it.” I
replied “Nothing.” He said “C’mon man just let me see.” After a few minutes of
this I decide to show him, and the first thing he does before even looking at
it is take the phone out of my hand. This does not go down well with me, and
without even thinking I punch him in the arm. This causes him to get up and try
to punch me, and then I throw him in the ground and before you know it our
parents are screaming at us both. They said “C’mon guys seriously! Stop you’re
going to break something!” My brother and I were now chuckling under our breath
at how they were getting mad, so I suppose the situation did not end too badly.
Could I possibly have over reacted? Yes, but I still blame him.
Obviously there is no actual history as to why people
started to do this, but my theory is that it is just a natural reaction because
it looks like I am handing someone something. In this case, that something just
happens to be my phone. It could also be that I am not holding the phone close
enough to them which means that they just want to hold the phone closer to them
so they can properly interpret what is being shown to them at their own pace
and without interruption.
There are three main ways to prevent my peeve from
happening again. The first and most obvious solution, to me at least, is that
the person waiting sight of what is on my screen can simply ask to hold the
phone instead of shooting their arm like a rocket towards it. The other two
solutions I can do. The first is to hold the phone closer to them, and the
second is to just accept that people are going to take my phone when I show
them something and let them. Both solutions would be just as effective;
however, neither are likely to happen, so chances are I will just have to put
up with it.
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