My husband and I were recently enjoying a bottle of wine while watching the sunset over the water. There was a lull in the conversation – not an awkward, uncomfortable one, just a pause. He stared at the river and the colors washing over the clouds and I picked up my mobile and checked my email. Ironically, the only email worth reading was one from Alison at Intel who wanted to tell me about a mobile etiquette poll Intel and Harris Interactive had done. (She was also offering you, my readers, an amazing giveaway. I’ll get to that in a minute.)
“Nine out of ten adults say they’re annoyed by some mobile behaviors,” she wrote. “But only 38 percent actually admit to personal wrongdoing.” I chuckled at the irony of reading this message from Alison while I myself was behaving very badly in this regard. Checking email while on a date ranked pretty high among the most offensive behaviors reported. Intel even made a silly video about this very behavior. Also, the public restroom (as illustrated) is noted as one of the most inappropriate places people have been spotted using mobile their devices. Ewww.
I looked up to share this irony with my husband but quickly realized — from the dirty look on his face — that he had joined the ranks of the nine of out of ten who are annoyed by someone else’s lack of mobile etiquette. So I quickly joined the less populous 38 percent of those who admit to wrongdoing, apologized, put my phone away, and poured us both another glass of wine.
How good is your mobile etiquette? Here’s a little quiz to help you decide:
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I learned early in life that the best defense is a good offense. So I quickly changed the subject. “Intel wants to give one of my readers a netbook!” I said. “I guess if people are going to learn mobile manners, they need the right tool for the job.”
“Wow!” he said, impressed, stunned, and jealous. His desire to have – or give away on his blog – a netbook had quickly replaced his annoyance at my poor mobile etiquette.
He can’t have this netbook. But you can. And this is just your average netbook either. It’s the gorgeous Vivienne Tam HP Mini. This is a netbook so sweet you will make all your friends jealous. Here’s a photo:
What do you have to do to win it? Answer this question in the comments: What is your worst mobile manners offense to date? This is true confession time. It’s not your chance to rat out your sister. So tell it like it is.
I will choose a random number from the comments. And Alison will send that person this adorable Vivienne Tam netbook. I don’t trust myself to send it on if I get my hands on it because I have been coveting this particular piece of geek bling since it came out.
This contest is closed! Dana won!
108 thoughts on “How is Your Mobile Etiquette? (And a giveaway!)”
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My worst offense would probably be going to visit my family but having to do work throughout the weekend so I set up my laptop at the dinner table so I could check email but still be a part of the family dinner. I know it was probably rude BUT I had to keep connected on email. I don’t think my grandparents understood it!
I am, admittedly, a habitual offender. Checking my iPhone while driving, ordering food, getting into taxis, while talking to a colleague, while on important business calls etc. However, I do try to hide my addiction so I don’t offend others… One of my worst offenses is probably feigning having to use the ladies room or getting up to get the waiter’s attention – all as a facade for the opportunity to check my email 😉
My biggest mobile offense occurred on the day I was picking up my soon-to-be-adopted son. He was 24 hours old. There were some issues with the paperwork. We were terrified of something going wrong. We were waiting for social workers to call us to clear us to come to the hospital and get him and my ex called out of the blue. And I took that call. Let’s just say, whoa. Not a good idea all the way around.
to be accurate, xtina didn’t apologize or put her sidekick away, and I wasn’t all that annoyed. possibly because we’d pretty much killed that bottle of pinot grigot already.
my worst mobile faux pas: being married to a Sidekick addict.
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Posting to twitter with my blackberry under the table while my friend was telling a story at the restaurant. I still don’t know what the story was about but I remember what my twitter post was.
I guess the worst mobile offense I have committed was to be talking on the phone while I was pretending to pay attention to the pastor during Sunday morning service. Since I am church secretary, I should really know better don’t you think?!!!
I don’t really have a “confession” but I’d have to say my worst mobile offense, or I guess continuing offenses, is that I pretty much never answer my phone and I mean almost never! I’ll be sitting right by it and it’ll ring but I just don’t care. I know it’s mean. The only person I really answer for is my mom 🙂
Reading these comments, I realize i’m pretty bad. I text, tweet, facebook and email while driving. Oh and of course, I talk on the phone while driving too. I always bring my smartphone with me to meetings and dinner and lay it on the table just in case i get a text or an interesting email. It’s comforting to know it is right there. I often panic that i don’t have my phone and will need to reach into my purse for feel its smooth touch. LOL wow, i’m so addicted!
Since the only mobile device I have is my cell phone, I would have to say my worst offense would have to be answering a call while in a restaurant with friends.
I took the quiz and I am a Mobile Master – yay! But I don’t get it right all the time. I am totally addicted to my iPhone, it is like a third arm. One day while grocery shopping with my husband which is me pushing the cart as my husband shops (he is the cook in the family), we were at the checkout where my only job is to bag the groceries, but it was a particularly newsworthy day (I can’t remember why) and I was trying to bag the groceries and read my iPhone at the same time. My husband, very sweetly asked, “can you put that thing down for a minute?!” I had inadvertently put eggs with canned foods – not a good combination. So now I am banned from using my cell phone in the check-out line!
I was meeting with a friend to talk to her about a HUGE fight that she and her fiance had were in. I was also waiting to hear from a friend about a group of people getting together that night. As she is telling me this horrific story about the fight she and her fiance got in, I kept checking my cell phone to see if I had gotten a text.
After a few minutes of checking realized how rude i was actually being. Now I make an honest effort to ignore my phone while spending time with those I love.
I rarely leave my phone on unless I am going to use it or am expecting someone to call me, and I don’t text or Twitter or email over my phone, so it’s hard to have a worst offense. On occasion though I do forget to turn it off (if it’s been on) when going into a restaurant or other public place and on occasion it has rung in one of those places. Of course, I’d never, never, never answer it there!
Gosh, that makes me sound like such a goody two shoes.
I think my worst offense is checking e-mail and messages during dinner with my husband. In my defense, he’s watching the news and not paying attention either!
My husband and I are raising little geeks (now ages 4 & 2). Sadly, it is not uncommon for me to answer a phone call, check email or take “just a minute” to check Twitter on my iPod when I should be playing with them, feeding them or bathing them. They both know that Mommy & Daddy work on computers and they both have their own (quite old hand-me-down) systems that they “work” on as well. So, often when I call them, I will hear, “Just a minute Mom, while I finish working.” And, like us, their “just a minute” tends to turn in to many until they are reminded it is time to get off the computer and actually interact with real people.
(Do I get bonus points for corrupting the younger generation?)
When I first became obsessed with texting, I found I couldn’t carry on a normal conversation without making sure my phone was in a spot nearby where I could feel it vibrate/hear its lovely chime. More than once, ashamedly, in the middle of a conversation I’ve opened my phone and responded to a text. Rude! I’m much better now. 🙂
I am sooo guilty. I’ve been a smartphone user for less than a year and I’ve turned into a monster. I check email while driving and even return texts (at red lights). I was so pissed at my husband for this behavior before I got a smartphone and look at me now. It is bad. If I don’t like the TV show my husband puts on I get on the phone. I check Facebook and email before going to bed. In my defense, I’m a new mom and the smartphone has made it so I can be out of the office and still get work done, but I know that doesn’t excuse the annoying and dangerous habits I’ve developed.
I confess to neglecting my poor children while I’m busy on my Blackberry. “Mom, we need breakfast!” “In a minute honey, I just have to…” Obviously something critically important like checking Facebook status updates, reading email, checking the weather forecast, getting rid of SPAM – it doesn’t exactly matter what. Okay, I need to go now, my kids are hungry!
I too have commited many of the above mobile sins.
My husband can’t stand it when I’m texting at dinner or look at a text during a conversation. So so bad.
I work retail so I don’t talk while checking out or asking for help at a store. If a customer wants to answer and talk on the phone, I will walk away.
I drive & walk while texting and/or talking on my cell.
Awesome giveaway! Love the mobile manners reminders……. I’m actually pretty considerate when in “public” but just like your storying of skimming emails when on a date with your hubby, I’m the worst with close family and friends as far as pulling out the iPhone or jumping on my laptop to check stats, respond to an email or Tweet when something exciting happens to us all if we’re on a trip or I’ll want to Facebook a cute photo I take of the kids right after I take it. I think I need to live in the moment more and worry less about staying so connected. Thanks for the reminders!
I was waiting for an e-mail from my boss on approval for a nice business trip. When I got home I still hadn’t received it. Later that evening when my girlfriend and I were in bed and kind of “busy”, I heard the sound of an incoming e-mail on my phone.
That night I slept on the couch.
My husband and I were at a store, registering for baby furniture. I received a phone call on my cell from my friend Alison. I took the call, while a salesperson was helping me, because I needed to know her thoughts on a particular baby item that we were considering. The salesperson had to stand there while we chatted. When the conversation was over, my friend had not realized that she hadn’t fully hung up her phone. I could hear her talking with her husband. I continued to make the salesperson, and my husband, wait because she and her husband were talking about me! They were talking about how expensive the items were that I was registering for, and made comments that I had waited too long to register, and I had no idea what I was doing, and how they had been so on-the-ball with their baby and had researched all of this stuff right when they’d gotten pregnant (I was due in a month). I was so shocked, and saddened to hear my friends talk about me this way, that I totally forgot that the salesperson and my husband were waiting for me, and just walked off to continue to eavesdrop on my friend’s conversation for another five minutes.
I check my e-mail and facebook during church services (and I’m married to the pastor!!!). How lame is that?
Telling people their emails were lost in my spam folder when I do not, in fact, use a spam filter…
My worst mobile offense is along the lines of the “catholic” sins… I use twitter and I tweet during church. If someone says something over the pulpit I share it. I also tweet when I’m stuck in traffic or someone cuts me off… instead of yelling at them I share it w/ the twitterverse. Most funny moment is when someone was speaking in church services and really loved the quote they used so i immediately pulled out blackberry and emailed her asking her for her reference. I told her I was writing as she was talking. She laughed in reply later that night saying she loved technology!
My worst is texting/emailing at a stoplight and not realizing that the light had turned green!
Talking while I’m checking out at the grocery store- I try not to, but somehow it just always seems that I get that “I have to take this call” call right as it’s my turn to check out.
I’m a mom AND a lapsed Catholic, which means I’m as good at multi-tasking as I am at committing sins. I therefore confess the following (I have a Blackberry):
1. Checking email/facebook/messages during church
2. Answering the phone in the library (even though I’ve been told my “inside” voice is louder than most folks’ “outside” voice)
3. Answering non-emergency, non-family calls when I was in labor, just so I could exclaim “I’M IN LABOR…NOW!!” to the person on the other end (what was I thinking?)
4. Texting while my husband is talking to me
5. Facebook-ing snarky things about someone who is sitting right next to me
6. Stopping to check messages before changing the baby’s dirty diaper (told you I was bad!)
7. I’ve also done that line thing that Sarah confessed to-sorry!
And though I NEVER text or talk on the phone while driving (I really don’t and am SO happy to live in a state where these practices are now illegal), I must confess that I have, on several occasions, turned my phone back on before the pilot announced that it was safe to turn on all mobile devices.
Wow, I feel so much better! Know what would make me feel even better? A Vivienne Tam HP mini! If I win, I promise to change the diaper FIRST from now on!!
I took a call and preceded to take a 5 minute call, which delayed breakfast for my whole family.
Similar to yourself, but worse, I tend to check if I have any new emails and skim my blog reader while my boyfriend is telling me about his day. Sometimes I’ll see something interesting and get so involved I realize I didn’t hear anything he said. Not cool.
I was at a restaurant, and speaking so loudly, they had to ask me to turn off my phone.
LOVE the laptop!
Don’t want to post my real name with this one… I have actually checked e-mail during an argument with my husband… Bad, Bad, Bad!!! I don’t deserve to win, but oh, I want to!!! :o)
I read Facebook status updates and CNN news articles from my phone while in bed with a guy who is waiting impatiently for my attention. Talk about inconsiderate!
I am horribly guilty of texting and driving. And surfing and driving. And taking pictures with my Blackberry while driving. Just stay away from me on the road is alls I’m saying. 🙂
I take my smartphone to webcast presentations and catch up on RSS newsfeeds during the boring bits. But I’m trying to be better about it.
I am guilty of occasionally forgetting to silence my cell in a movie theater and scrambling when it rings.
Two things:
1) I am guilty of talking on the phone while in the checkout line. I try not to because I remember reading somewhere that cashiers really hate that but sometimes, it can’t be helped.
2) I am guilty of checking Facebook while in church – ridiculous, I know!!
I have been really bad and checked something on the ‘net on my phone while sitting at a red light…had to be honked at to get going on the green light…I have got to stop this bad habit as it will soon cost big time fines where I live…
My worst mobile offense would be leaving my phone out on a bar or table when out with friends. It’s rude to them because it’s like saying, “I like being out with you guys, but I would looooove it if someone else were to call or text me with better plans…” Yikes.
My worst mobile offense was having my cell phone alert me to a text message while I was in a group therapy session. I hadn’t thought of turning the thing off because I had been getting such crappy reception. But there we were, the room was quiet, emotions were running high and the trill of my cell phone cut through the room like a clap of thunder. Man, was I embarrassed.
I recently upgraded to a G1 from an LG Scoop. Neither phone has been good for my etiquette with mobile phones. I think my worst one was the day after I got my G1. Keep in mind, I’ve had this phone for less than 24 hours, and was still learning. But, it was Mother’s Day and we were at church with my parents. I thought I had my phone on vibrate, but alas, in the middle of the sermon, my phone rings with a daily alarm that I had set up and wasn’t silented by being on vibrate… I got THE dirtiest look from my Dad, I still feel guilty……
Errr…..that’s “peek”, not peak….. :0
OK…I admit it, I read email during high-volume traffic jams…being bored and all. I try to be careful (and not create an accident which would defeat the purpose of getting out of the traffic jam!). But it’s so hard not to “peak” when the traffic is stopped…
my worst offense is a pretty common one but one that i know is really bad. it’s using texting to make plans with another group of people when you are already hanging out with someone. it’s really obvious when you’re glued to your phone for 5 minutes and then someone says “well should we go out to dinner” and you say “actually i have plans to go to go hang out with so & so”. it’s an jerky thing to do but i don’t even have a specific story because i’ve done it a number of times. but i’m going to try to be more reasonable about it from now on.
According to the quiz I just subjected myself to, I am a “Mobile Misfit,” not good. Here’s my worst mobile etiquette to date (and I don’t think it’s THAT bad):
I was recently at the movie theater (name of movie not to be disclosed) and instead of shutting off my cell phone, I put it on vibrate so as not to miss an ever-pressing e-mail about an online order shipment. Like, did it really matter when my merchandise was arriving since I was in the darn theater anyways and wouldn’t be getting it for another 3-4 days? Nope, not a bit, but I am an addict…oh, and a major planner.
I just recently joined the ranks of the “mobile” – bought my first Blackberry just a few days ago. Tonight at dinner (my son’s 14th birthday) I actually answered the phone and my husband had to tell the waitress to come back to get my order… Sheez! I can see why they call these things CRACKberries!
My worst behavior with my mobile… answering a text while driving on the freeway. I know that’s incredibly wrong and I was appalled at myself when I hit send.
I will not use my phone in movie theatres or public restrooms because people that do those annoy me so much. I do use my iPhone’s web browser at the grocery store, but that’s where I keep my shopping list! I try not to be too unaware of the surrounding world or neglect the IRL people I’m with, but sometimes I do check my email while out to dinner with my husband.
I went on a volunteering trip once with ppl from college. It was late at night and I had not talked to my husband in hours (I talked to him every few hrs back then!), so I decided to sit in the front passenger seat and talk to him for about half an hour while the rest of the 7 ppl in the van sat quiet and polite and very offended. I didn’t quite realize what I was doing, weird I know. But I am more careful now about my surroundings when I have long conversations. There, that is my mobile etiquette confession.
I really really hope I win, cos I want that netbook so much!! I don’t need it tho, so I will be okay if someone who really needs it gets it. Thanks!
My worst offense took place at the library. While my daughter was attending a study group, I sat with a group of other parents. I went on a bit of a rant about how many people around us were ignoring the “no cell phones” sign. Not a minute later, my own cell vibrated with a call from my son. Thinking it would be a quick “when are you coming home” question, I answered (tsk tsk on me). Then I had to take the cell phone walk of shame through the library when it turned out to be a much longer conversation.
My worst offense is reading email or blogposts while waiting in line and not realizing the line has moved or the clerk is ready to check me out. Worse is when they’ve apparently “ma’am-ed” me several times trying to get my attention. On the plus side, I’ve been told the pink cheeks make me look younger. 🙂
[off to light my netbook candles!]
My worst, I’m-such-a-jerk mobile story:
I went out to dinner with my ex-boyfriend (after nearly 2 years together, we’d been broken up for about 7-8 months at this point). Halfway through dinner, my mother called me. NOT ONLY did I answer, I talked to her for a good five minutes while he just sat there! I could see it was making him uncomfortable, but I couldn’t get off the phone.
Yeah, I was an idiot.
I’ve gotten better over the past few years, but that still makes me wince.