It's a scene so familiar that it's a cliché – you're out seeing a brand new movie, arm-deep in a tub of popcorn when someone's "Stayin' Alive" ringtone goes off. A million eyes shoot to the direction of the sound while the phone's owner wrestles with the settings to turn it off, his smile simultaneously reassuring yet apologetic.
There's almost no way to say it without coming off as some wily old codger, but our gadgets are making us impolite.
Technology has presented some tremendous boons to the world, but at least a little of it comes at the cost of our etiquette.
Some people think it's now rude to leave a voicemail.
Some people just aren't feeling the voicemail lately. The New York Times recently proclaimed that voice mail had become "another impolite way of trying to connect with someone."
But phones are first and foremost for voice calls. There are still plenty of people who enjoy (and even prefer) using a smartphone for talk instead of text, but we're noticing that this is changing.
Some people regard it as rude to call someone without first having introduced themselves in a less intimate medium.
When did talking on the phone become more important than talking to the person in front of you?
We noted recently that Mark Zuckerberg suggested that using your phone while you're at dinner with someone else was not, in fact, a negative thing.
Trying to handle two conversations at once is the new normal. Whether it will ever become acceptable or not is still up in the air: This coffee shop in the U.K. refuses to serve customers who are using a phone.
There's no pressure to get anywhere on time if you can just text an excuse when you're running late.
When excuses are easier to make, people are glad to pick up the slack and make lots of excuses.
There's a drastically reduced need to get somewhere at a predetermined time when you can instantly let everyone know you'll be late with a few button presses.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider