Most Say We're Getting Ruder, Blame Cell Phones

Our happy hour fact to amaze your drinking buddies with.

Seventy-five percent of Americans think we are getting less civil.

In the wake of several high-profile acts of boorishness, a Rasmussen Reports Poll found that only 10 percent of adults believe manners are improving. Women under 40 feel strongest about the decline in civility, though a similar response showed up among every demographic group.

Americans don't necessarily place the blame for this coarsening on Joe Wilson and Kanye West. Instead, it was the pervasiveness of cell phone use and text messaging during social events that was singled out by a majority of respondents.

We agree that certain forms of cell phone use are grating, particularly the kind that involves that annoyingly intrusive Verizon guy and his horde of lackeys.

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