Tech Rudeness

With the rapidly changing technology, are the rules still the same? The Wall Street Journal wonders. To quote:

Or what about constant checking of BlackBerries and Smartphones? When I’m out with colleagues, most of us tend to check our BlackBerries once in a while, which in the news business is understandable.  (As one of my colleagues once wrote, “Looking down is the new looking up.”) There are often stories that need to be looked after once we’ve left the office. But there are a few colleagues that check in constantly. It leaves me thinking that they would rather be at work, or are at least more interested in what is going on at work, than having a conversation. That, to me, spells rude. Being disrespectful of a colleague’s time, whether on the job or not, probably does more harm than incessant checking in does good for your career.

Readers, do you think the concept of rudeness has changed (or not) with mobile technology? Do you agree, as Markoe describes, that to some people, “what’s rude is asking for privacy in any place that gets a signal, because you’re interfering with someone else’s rights of expression”? (Read entire article.)

This is what I think: the heart of manners is consideration for those around us. It is an intrusion into the lives of others to foist loud noise, be it music or conversation or shouting, upon them. Also, the people in whose company we are in at the moment deserve our immediate attention, not those texting or phoning us, with the exception of emergencies. If we need to take a call or answer a text, then we should excuse ourselves profusely and later try to take up the conversation where it was when interrupted. Share