Ringtone separates the cute from rude.
Source: Kansas City Star (Kansas City, MO)

I'm having a chat with my co-worker, and all of a sudden a concert breaks out in her pocket.

It's the infectious pop song by the Pussycat Dolls, "Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" It's coming from her cell phone.

Her phone doesn't just ring, it sings. It sings when she gets a phone call, it sings when she gets a text message. In one day I heard three songs from her phone. In addition to "Don't Cha," I heard Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack" and a "Pirates of the Caribbean" ringer.

Some might be bothered by the ringers, but the truth is my phone sings, too.

I have Beyonce's "Green Light," Kanye West's "Can't Tell Me Nothing" and "We Are Family," by Sister Sledge. And when I hear "Bug a Boo" by Destiny's Child, I know it's a call I don't want to answer.

My friend and I both found it funny but agreed that the ringtone and text messaging trends have gotten way out of hand.

I have seen people text messaging in the movie theater, with that bright cell phone light casting an irritating glow in the darkness. And ringtones, while fun and personable, can be absolutely obnoxious.

When my cousin was in town with his fancy T-Mobile Sidekick phone, every time he got a text, this very loud voice alerted him, "You got a message, dog." I tend to keep my cell phone ringers turned down low. But his ringer alerts everyone in the house. Even if you are in the other room, asleep at 2 a.m.

But he doesn't realize it. He didn't even understand how disruptive it was when he carried on conversations using his cell set to speaker phone. It's as if we have all become so tethered to these little gadgets that we don't think twice about carrying on cellular conversations at the gym, using ringtones as radios or the offense I'm often guilty of _ sending text messages at the dinner table, during dates and anywhere possible.

Had I not seen my cousin do all the same things, and been subjected to his Sidekick all day and night, I might have never appreciated my own bad phone etiquette. I thought I was doing all the right things by getting off the cell when I'm in line at the grocery store, turning it off at the theater and hiding it in the couch once a week to suppress my 24-hour access obsession.

But the truth is, like many people, I've been oblivious to cell phone obnoxiousness.

I'm going to have a talk with all of my friends about how we need to be more mindful of our phone habits. Wait a minute, it will be faster if I just text them.