Remember when smoking was first banned on airlines and smokers went nutty during their flight-duration enforced quits? Now smokers for the most part seem to have accepted their lot in life and mainly just grumble under their breath. But ask your basic everyday passenger to turn off his iPod or her laptop for takeoffs and landings? Yowza, them's fighting words for some folks. Remember actor Alec Baldwin's snit in December? And he's far from alone. According to this Wall Street Journal article, flight attendants peg the turn-off-your-devices announcement as the thing most likely to ignite a fire that makes cigarettes look tame.
As if we needed any more proof, but welcome to our new national (likely global) addiction. Have you seen that Hulu ad where the alien/guy is all ecstatic about seeing people so engrossed in watching our screens that basically our brains are melting into tasty alien snacks? I bet he loves flying...