This is pure genius!
We encounter them everywhere — on the bus, on the street, in restaurants — always talking to an invisible companion. They’re people gabbing on cell phones, and they can be obnoxious.
It’s a familiar issue: You’re stuck somewhere with a nearby stranger yapping on a cell phone, but you’re unwilling to say anything about it. In December, designers Jim Coudal of Chicago’s Coudal Partners and Aaron Draplin of Portland, Oregon-based Draplindustries Design drafted a solution that’s been gaining buzz across the blogosphere.
Following an idea initiated by Coudal’s wife, Heidi, Coudal and Draplin put together a series of free, downloadable cards, with messages like, “Just so you know: Everyone around you is being forced to listen to yer conversation” and “The world is a noisy place. You aren’t helping things.” Cards are attributed to the Society for HandHeld Hushing, or SHHH.
At last check, the file (.pdf) had been downloaded a quarter of a million times, Coudal said, though he doesn’t know of anybody who has actually passed out the cards. He has, however, had requests to translate them into French and Japanese, and somebody translated them into Finnish, he said.
“It’s one of those things that happened to strike a chord with people,” he said.
If downloaders are going to use the cards, Coudal suggests handing one out and then leaving the immediate area.
“We don’t really want to be responsible for a confrontation in the shoe department of Nordstrom’s or anything,” he said.
Source: Wired.com
