While we were at SxSW, Laura and I threw a Mobile Manners brunch with Intel. We gathered a group of very smart women to eat quiche and text one other about the irritating things people do with their gadgets.
Genevieve Bell, an Intel Fellow who studies how different cultures use technology, presented some of their mobile etiquette research.
During Genevieve’s presentation, I tweeted while she was talking (event hashtag, FTW), checked in to Foursquare, and texted with a person sitting two tables away from me. Afterward, I drove around town looking for a funeral parlor, because I’ve heard those are nice quiet places to make phone calls.
Everyone else was the picture of civility, even when the gift bags came out.
Now that’s some good home training.
The bags were a team effort amongst attendees, and as always we saved one for you. Maile brought her gorgeous Epiphanie Bags, and I set aside the Clover Laptop and Camera Bag in grey, which is the one I carry. Everywhere. And sometimes I spoon with it. It looks like this:
Elizabeth works for Twitter, but also has a letterpress business called Paperwheel Press. She brought everyone a couple of geeky letterpress thank you notes:
And finally, Intel threw in a copy of Emily Post’s Great Get Togethers:
To win, please leave your pinky out when you sip your tea, and leave your most profound mobile etiquette peeve in comments.
Please only enter once; I’ll leave comments open until Monday when I’ll announce the winner. I hope it’s you.
Mighty Girl 
Chewing noises! Smacking your lips, sucking your teeth, I hate it all! Did you grow up in a barn?? 🙂
LikeLike
Texting while walking (worse than being stuck behind an 85-year-old with a walker)
LikeLike
Obscenely loud rings. Really, it’s just. Wow.
LikeLike
I have to say I gasped when I got to the pic of the gift bags.
Not sure if this counts, but there seems to be a rash of people on the NYC subways listening to music on their phones without headphones. They’re like tiny, tinny sounding boomboxes.
LikeLike
people walking and texting. If they are coming at me (and don’t see me due to texting), I oftentimes won’t move out of the way, so that they run right into me. Passive aggresive, I know.
LikeLike
I hate being out with a friend and that friend gets involved in a long text conversation with someone else. Excuse me? I’m right here! Am I so boring that you need someone else to converse with?
Of course, I’m kind of old-fashioned. I don’t even answer the house phone when I have guests. If my son is out, I might check the caller ID, but that’s it.
LikeLike
My dad is an older person AND a geek. He likes to call me up for long philosophical/political/bullshozz conversations – but most the time he’s on the computer at the same time. So, there are extra long pauses, where he gets distracted by something he’s doing on the computer, and they’re long enough that you think you may as well start talking. But NO! Dad starts in again as if there was no pause at all and as if he were being interrupted. Eventually he says,”Do you have me on speakerphone? We always talk over each other when you put me on speaker phone.” I don’t have the heart to tell him that 1) he’s the only person that talks over me like that and 2) everybody’s almost always on speaker unless I’m in a public place. Oh, and 3) it’s starting to make him seem a bit dottery, ya know?
LikeLike
My biggest pet peeve is the whole driving while texting phenom. It seems especially ridiculous if someone is merging onto a freeway, or into a lane. This for me is not so much a manners issue as it is a safety concern…though I would find being smashed into at 50 miles and hour because some dude driving home from work wanted to “lol” his friend quite rude.
LikeLike
hate that moment at a dinner when there is a transition from everyone being so connected and present to when the phones come out and we all get zombified checking our feeds/txts/emails and then start telling each other about them. WHY do we this?! and all aforementioned bad behavior. I want that bag please.
LikeLike
Thanks for this fun chance! My pet peeve – checking phone/text/internet during a meal. No dice in this household.
LikeLike
When people are asked to silence their phones, and they put it on vibrate. I get it – it’s not ringing – but WE CAN ALL HERE THAT STUPID BUZZING. I find it especially rude when it’s during a presentation.
LikeLike
Aww, I used the wrong “hear” in my capslock yelling. Well. Don’t I feel stupid.
LikeLike
I agree that texting while talking is totally rude. Like interrupting a perfectly good conversation to answer the phone for, say, a telemarketer…
LikeLike
Really dislike it when people are on a call, and, in-between-sentences, decide that it would also be a good idea to start another conversation with you.
Or when poeple are on their phone, and not paying attention to the person waiting to help them (like the deli-counter guy, or the waiter.. or even the person they are with).
LikeLike
Texting during a movie, if it’s a good one, anyway. Sounds like a double standard, but if you’re paying to see Season of the Witch, I say you can do what you want. But if you’re sitting there live-texting Jane Eyre, I will end you. I wish I were kidding about that. Nothing makes me angrier, cell-phone-wise.
LikeLike
any behavior that stems from the belief that interacting with a person through your cellphone is more important than interacting with the real, live person next to you.
LikeLike
My pet peeve is when I am waiting with a group of friends (to be seated at a restaurant, in line for coffee, at the bus stop) and everyone immediately whips out there phones to text, Facebook, email. We’re all friends, can’t we have a conversation???
LikeLike
I cannot stand people texting in the grocery store. There is nothing more irritating than someone standing in the middle of an aisle, taking up space and texting. What is so important that you have to stop your shopping to chat about?
Also, anyone texting or talking while driving. It’s not bad manners, it’s dangerous!
LikeLike
The old not-turning-off-your-gadgets-in-a-theater (of any type) is still my biggest pet peeve. Even when they are silent the glowing screens make me nuts!
LikeLike
As a librarian I absolutely cannot handle cell phone calls in the library.
LikeLike
texting in the middle of a conversation, the focus should be on the people you are with!
LikeLike
Answering the cell phone at the dinner table and not getting up to take the call in a corridor or outside. Happened last night, at a tiny 4-table restaurant. Seriously, dude? You’re going to make us all listen to this?
Second place goes to being in an active conversation with Real Live People, and dropping out for several minutes to check your feeds. Doubly bad if it’s the host of the party doing this. I have a couple of friends I just don’t hang out with anymore because of this habit.
LikeLike
People holding up their phones to take pictures at a music concert. I go for the music, and I find my view being blocked by tiny screens really quite annoying.
LikeLike
My favorite annoying tech-related bit is from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, when Sweet Dee is attempting to do stand-up comedy —
What’s up with hands-free headsets these days? It’s like “Look at me, I’m one part robot, three parts a*hole!”
LikeLike
It drives me crazy when I am at a table full of people and they are all looking at their phones at the same time. People. Even the meerkats know that we should be taking turns having our heads down.
LikeLike
Oh, my pet peeve is when someone who is on the phone walks up to a counter at a cafe or a shop or whatever and continues with the conversation, as s/he gestures at the item they want, or mouths it. SO rude! It always makes me want to wrest the phone from them and chuck it down the nearest manhole!
LikeLike
People who walk into MY office for an appointment while talking on the phone and when I go to greet them, hold up a finger a me like, “I’ll be with you in just a minute.” GRRRR
LikeLike
There are so many! I really dislike the lack of niceties in some folks text language. Seriously, it only takes an extra second to write those very important please and thank you’s.
LikeLike
The worst for me is the collage kids who are texting while walking. They bump into you or slowly stop walking in the middle of the sidewalk and you have to maneuver around them. All 50 thousand of them. Living in Boston and working across the street from BU can be awful.
LikeLike
I really do hate it when people are talking on their phones while being helped out by a cashier…. Maybe it’s because I used to be a cashier, but I think it’s really obnoxious, and I always tell people I’ll call them back as soon as I step into line to pay for something.
Also, I have a friend who never turns his phone off in the movie theater. Instead, he leaves it on vibrate and when someone calls, he answers the phone in a whisper to say “Sorry, can I call you back? I’m watching a movie.”
LikeLike
Oooooh, that’s easy. Using a cell phone in the bathroom! Especially a public bathroom! Gross and awkward! I’ve been know to flush an adjoining toilet multiple times just to try to get the person in the next stall to hang up their *bleeping* cell phone.
LikeLike
In the middle of a conversation with me, my sis-in-law will just whip out her phone and text/call someone else, ALL THE TIME. Because waiting 10 more seconds or excusing yourself is too much work?
LikeLike
It’s a tie between people who make phone calls from the bathroom stall and everyone who feels the need to speak at extra volume when they are on the cell phone. This is why I am not licensed to carry a concealed weapon…
LikeLike
When people are looking downward when they text as they walk down the middle of the street – really.
Bonus points: when you honk to let them know you’re right behind them (or right in front of them) in your vehicle and they turn around and give you the stink eye.
LikeLike
I was on vacation recently and there was a little girl in the pool who kept trying to get her dad’s attention FOR OVER AN HOUR while he was engrossed in his phone. Cracked my heart a little.
LikeLike
I work with college students for a living and wish I could teach a class on mobile etiquette, and make it a graduation requirement!
It is NEVER okay to be on your phone/device, texting, reading things, etc. when we are having a face-to-face conversation. If you are expecting some sort of emergency call that may require your attention, let me know at the onset; otherwise, turn the phone off!
LikeLike
Pet peeve: People who talk on their mobile phones on the DC Metro. We don’t want to be forced to hear your conversation!
LikeLike
checking facebook/twitter during dinner – as if to say, let me see if anyone else is doing something better.
LikeLike
Just one peeve? I think the top of my list is when anyone interrupts a current conversation or activity to take a non-urgent call or text or tweet or whatever. Make your excuses if it’s urgent or expected, but don’t ignore me mid-sentence to check your facebook.
Oh! One more? When people assume that technology means I’m available 24/7. I get time off, too, people. And, I’m frequently out of a service area, so calm down. I’ll call you back when I can; messaging me every thirty seconds does not help.
Yikes, grouchy today. Thanks!
LikeLike
I despise “fights” on twitter or facebook. If you need to say mean words to someone DO NOT DO IT WHERE I CAN SEE YOU.
Thanks, in advance.
LikeLike
When people complain about other (anonymous) people on social sites. Of course, the person s/he is writing about almost certainly follows her on these sites. How. Passive-Aggressively. Rude.
LikeLike
I was once in a spin class where a guy took several calls on his cell phone. And they were lengthy, not “hey, I’m in the middle of a class at the gym right now, I’ll call you back” types of calls. Like conversations. How could he even hear over the loud music and spinning bikes? Why didn’t he just leave the class for a minute? It was baffling.
LikeLike
texting and playing with your phone while physically in the room with other people. I’ve been to parties where literally everyone is looking at their phone rather than the other people in the room.
LikeLike
I love that the interior of that bag is red! I can never find anything in my purse because the fabric is black, thus turning my handbag into a black hole from which the Altoids will never return!
LikeLike
I’m a librarian and it happens pretty frequently that someone will come to the reference desk, ask a question and then proceed to tap away on their device while I’m answering them. So rude!
LikeLike
I personally hate it when people stop a conversation they’re having in person to respond to a text or email. Even worse is when they take a phone call and proceed to yammer away while you stand there steaming.
LikeLike
I hate it when someone is texting while talking to you. People in my generation (I’m 29), seem to think that this is the way of the future and the old fuddy duddies just have to get used to it. But I’m not old, and I’m not fuddy and I think it’s one of the rudest things possible.
LikeLike
My technology pet peeve? When you are sitting at a meal with someone and they start texting while they are still talking to you. Argh – pay attention to me!
LikeLike
people talking loudly on the phone during the train commute!!!!
LikeLike
I have to echo the other librarian’s comment. It’s really annoying when you are helping someone at the desk and they answer their phone or text. In general, talking on your phone in the library is pretty ridiculous but come on, you asked ME a question and now you’re going to ignore the answer while you use your phone?
LikeLike