Alpha Framing: Etiquette Tips for Smartphone Abusers
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It has finally happened; the time that every geek has feared since the idea of robots and supercomputers have existed, when humans have become slaves to their machines. The king of this new regime is the smartphone. It has a strange power over people that makes them do crazy things.
Okay, that may be a little bit dramatic, but it is amazing to see the kind of hold these smartphones have over people. No one ever goes anywhere without their trusty smartphone, and typically their face is staring at the screen the whole time they are out.
Some people don’t really see this as a problem, because we are living in the age of smartphones, so it should just be accepted as normal or polite behavior. They are wrong. So to clear up any grey area surrounding this issue, I will be going through 5 common questions about phone etiquette to help you prevent embarrassing phone blunders.
1. Should one be fiddling with their smartphones on the job like during meetings or engaging with clients? I.E. texting, looking at FB, or checking email? Unless you are a sleazy businessman from the 90’s, you should have your phone on vibrate or silent and safely in your pocket. Some people think if they have a meeting interrupted by a call, it makes them look like they are in demand or important.
To me, it looks like you don’t value my time and have no interest in what is going on. Or you are careless and forgot to turn your phone off. Either way, it doesn’t shed a very good light on you.
Honestly, what do you think is going to happen in the 30 minutes to an hour that you are in a meeting? Surely nothing colossal is happening on Facebook, and I think your email can wait for you to be done with your clients.
So keep your phone out of the business meeting and out of your client’s eyesight. It is going to hurt you way more to like a Facebook status in a meeting than to wait an hour.
2. While driving? You tell me; should you be doing anything in your car that distracts you from the road? I am amazed when I see people doing things like texting in the car while driving. You can at least wait till you get to a stop light or something to look at your phone. Even if it is the most important text or phone call of your life, pull over.
You are not the only one you put in jeopardy when you text and drive. Many lives are lost every year due to people texting and driving, and some of them are innocent. Imagine if you swerved into the other lane and killed someone just because you had to send “K” or “Lol” to a friend.
3. How about the annoying person on the bus/train/subway who loudly converses with someone about business or personal topics? What is the audible and appropriate talking level? I really don’t approve of people talking on the phone in public, simply because everyone’s idea of being loud is different. So, there is no real way to convince someone that they are being rude if they consider their volume level to be alright.
As for business or personal, neither should be dealt with in a public setting. I’d say the thing to do is answer and tell the person who is calling that you will call them back shortly. There is no need to inconvenience your fellow travelers with incessant babbling.
4. What about ringtones? Should professional men opt for less evasive ringtones versus their favorite song? Or should phones be placed on silent or vibrate during office hours? For the sake of professionalism, ringtones should be one of the traditional ones that come programmed into your phone. Yes, these are not the most exciting sounds ever, but it is better to have a boring ringtone than to have a song lyric offend someone
If you are dead set on having a personalized ringtone, a simple solution is to just put your phone on vibrate. I wouldn’t recommend silent because then you might miss something and with the vibrate, you still have some sort of notification that you have a message or call.
5. Finally, what are the exceptions, if there are any, to the rules? The only real exception is if there is an emergency. If you keep getting calls one after the other, then there could be something bad happening. If this occurs in a meeting, simply excuse yourself and tell them you think there is a problem or emergency. If you are driving, pull over. If you are in public I think the concerns over family and friends should outweigh politeness to total strangers.
The main idea is to be courteous. People are losing the art of real-world communication because their eyes are glued to the screen of their phones. So if you happen to tear your eyes away for a moment while a YouTube video loads, or you are awaiting a text, take a look around at the real world. You may be surprised at what you see.