There’s a lot of debate lately about cell phones in the air. Do we want to be connected and productive with carryons securely stashed in overhead bins? Or do we like the excuse of being fully disconnected at 30,000 feet? Would we welcome the ability to make calls on our mobiles, or would we rather send a lynch mob to seat 19D?

Turns out 74% of consumers don’t want to hear you yacking with your office cohorts, but they wouldn’t mind a bit if you sent them a text message. A new survey commissioned by Yahoo! and conducted by Harris Interactive revealed that nearly three out of four consumers agree that mobile phone usage on planes should be restricted to silent features. The majority of us want to stay connected to our life on the ground. Email, text, IM, games — all good. But if we have to sit next to you making goo-goo with your girlfriend in Gilroy, game over.

What’s more, more than two-thirds think there should be a designated talking section. Hey, it worked so well with smoking. Why not?

So how about you? Want to participate in our entirely statistically-invalid random sampling?

Will Yodel Anecdotal readers agree that silence is golden?

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor