One of my favorite mobile tech analysts is Gerry Purdy, now with
Frost and Sullivan. Here are his tips on the new social etiquette required because of public use of mobile technologies:
Social Etiquette in MobileNew mobile technologies create wonderful new capabilities, but they also create the need for new social dynamics. The most obvious benefit is the ability to make or receive a call wherever you are. This can be a lifesaver when you’ve arrived at the airport on a flight and want to know where your ride is. It reduces anxiety, and the person picking you up is relieved to know that you’ve arrived. All is good.
Now, take that same capability and put yourself in a restaurant or another quiet place, such as a church. Someone is trying to reach you, and the phone goes off and makes a loud noise. You’re embarrassed and others near you are bothered. The person calling doesn’t know that you’re in a quiet place, and it just deteriorates into a bad situation. Thus, new mobile technologies create new services that really benefit users, but they also create the requirement for a new “mobile etiquette” that we must develop so that the capabilities are utilized, but are only done so in the right social rules of etiquette.
Let’s review that restaurant situation again. Someone needs to reach you. It could be a nurse desperately needing to reach a doctor about a patient. Or it could be a family member that’s trying to reach you about an important matter. You know that it’s impolite to have your cell phone ring in quiet places, so you put your phone on vibrate mode. The person calling doesn’t know if you can talk or not, so they know that it’s best to send you an SMS text message asking if it’s OK to talk. You feel the phone vibrate, look at the screen, and text back that you’ll step outside so you can talk. Thus, using “mobile etiquette,” everyone’s needs are met and the new “must reach you now” capability is still able to be used.
Now, take a different situation that involves data. Often, it’s just not socially acceptable to bring your notebook PC into a meeting. The screen creates a barrier between you and the others in the meeting. You are clearly doing email while others are talking. What do you do in this situation? Pray of course! You walk into the meeting with your BlackBerry, Palm Treo, Nokia e61, Motorola Q, or other similar device. You feel the phone vibrate and notice that you received an important email. You hold the phone under the table and pretend to “pray” while you “thumb” your reply. The same is true for SMS messages. As a result, some important topic can be addressed without bothering anyone in a meeting.
Just like with any other technologic advance, things taken to extreme are not positive. For example, if you tried to answer 40-50 email messages while you were in a meeting, others would know what you were doing and feel that the slight diversion to address something important had been violated by your not participating in the meeting.There are some times that you need to turn your cell phone off or not even look at the display if you feel it vibrating in your pocket. Every situation is different, and you have to adapt the new technology to the surrounding social setting.
There is a new network infrastructure under development, called IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), that will help most of us handle difficult social situations. IMS will provide “presence” and interactive messaging so that you can see if the person you’re calling is available to take a call or not. That alone will be a tremendous advance in the use of mobile phones.
My recommendation is simple: honor people’s privacy and use mobile technologies in ways that are socially acceptable. I’m glad that we have created wonderful new communications capabilities with cell phones, but a responsibility goes along with those capabilities, and that is to use them in a manner that is acceptable to most social situations.
