Loading ...

Cell phone etiquette: 10 dos and don'ts

I'm a New Yorker — born, bred and proud of it. So when I say it's time to dial down on all this rude and infernal yakking on mobile phones, you'll understand that it comes with a high tolerance for urban chatter and in-your-face attitude.

Loutish cell use is out of control. Mobile phones now ring at weddings and funerals, job interviews and surgical procedures. No event is immune.

During Broadway shows, it's not uncommon to hear the unmistakable ring tones of, say, the William Tell Overture going off. It got so bad a while back that the New York City Council actually had to pass a law, banning cell phone use during live performances and in museums. Violators risk a $50 fine. But, of course, that was just symbolic. Who could afford the time and resources to actually enforce it?

Everywhere I go, from avenues to airports, from elevators to the bank, from conference rooms to restaurants, mobile addicts are blurting out steady streams of shocking and confidential revelations. Who needs to know all the intimate and creepy things we're now forced to overhear?

Mobile madness

Boorish cell use isn't limited to social venues, either. It's corrupting the most basic of business courtesies. Every executive has a "Can you beat this?" cell story. But Mary Westheimer, founder of Bookzone.com, offers one totally over the top. At a Publishers Marketing Association conference, a panel member was presenting his part of the event. "His cell phone rang and he stopped his presentation and answered his phone!"

"People are defining new rules and new behavior for what's personal and what's private," says Robbie Blinkoff, principal anthropologist at Context-Based Research Group, a Baltimore marketer that relies on ethnographic fieldwork for insights into consumer behavior. "Technological change leads to social change, but there's always a lag," he says.

Maybe. But manners aren't improving with increased use. About 72% of Americans agree that users' worst cell phone habit is having loud conversations in public, according to a recent national poll by market research group Synovate. Almost seven out of 10 (68%) said they observe poor cell phone etiquette at least once every day.

"I suspect the functionality and ease-of-use of these devices lead us to become lazy and to lose awareness of ourselves, others and our surroundings," said Steve Levine at Synovate, when the study was released.

Cell phones aren't the issue

Let me be clear. I think mobile phones rank up there with the invention of the steam engine and ice cream. As we all know too well, mobiles can be critical in keeping us safe and connected. Technology and its myriad benefits are not the issue. People are.

Gartner Group predicts that one billion mobile phones will be sold worldwide in the year 2009. The decibel level is rising. So are transgressions and intrusions — and car accidents. At any given time, about 3% of people driving are simultaneously talking on their mobiles, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which translates into millions of distracted drivers. Unnecessary mobile talk is increasingly fatal, even when carried on hands-free, according to the latest studies.

Perhaps it's time to turn serious about mobile manners.

Send a message

Technology and manners are compatible. For example, most Web users are up-to-speed on e-mail etiquette, even Gen Y teens, the poster kids for iPod culture. Wireless users must evolve. Sure, there are a handful of folks who must take calls no matter where, no matter what — say, heads of state or expectant fathers. But virtually everyone can turn on the vibrate option, depend on voice-mail messages or head for a secluded area before pressing "send."

If, as anthropologist Blinkoff promises, the mobile lifestyle is creating "a phantom sense of proximity," then we must hew to new dos and don'ts. Here's my 10-point plan.