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 
I love those bags!!
My biggest peeve is something a dear friend does constantly, which is to always have her phone in hand when we’re together so that she almost never looks me in the eye. I’m talking, she’s saying “mmm hmmm” while typing away on her phone. DRIVES ME NUTS!
Thank you for the chance to enter!
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I can’t stand it when I call someone on their cell and they pick up only to say “I’m in the middle of X and can’t talk now. I’ll call you back. Bye!” If you’re that busy, let it go to voice mail, so I can at least leave a message.
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It drives me nuts that people Text and Drive, really? If its that important while they are driving they need to just call the person. Texting is so dangerous!
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Having an inperson conversation with someone while they are looking down at their phone texting with someone else.
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My absolute number one pet peeve is when you are having coffee/a meal/whatever one-on-one with a friend or family member and they stop to answer every text message, read every notification, attend to every email as it comes in. Hey, I’m sitting right here with you, in the flesh, talk to me now – you can text, read, catch up with Facebook later. On your own time.
I love my friends who switch their phones to silent or even place them facedown on the table – you know they’re really listening. Respect.
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I hate when you go to the trouble of planning a get-together with a friend (who you haven’t seen in awhile) and they spend the lunch hour texting under the table, muttering “uh huh, yeah? right” while you are trying to catch up….
Thanks for coming out……
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Someone has already said mine, but it doesn’t make it bother me any less – people who pull out their phones during movies in the theater. You’re blinding us all, dudes.
Love the bag and the Inbox Zero cards!
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Going out to dinner with girlfriends who spend the entire meal on their phones checking out & totaling their weight watcher points. Ugh.
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Super loud cell phone talkers at the gym! Really? Who needs to know that you’re on resistance level 10 on that elliptical right now?
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When you’re listening to a presentation in a crowded room, a phone rings and instead of shutting it off or silencing it and walking out, the person ANSWERS IT and proceeds to talk all the way out the door. Clearly you did not even attempt to shut off your phone (disrespectful to all). Their number shows up on your phone so you can call them right back and they can leave a VM if they miss you.
But walking out while whispering loudly in your phone “I’m at a presentation! Wait, just a sec, wait, I’m almost outside.” Makes me want to trip you so that you land on your phone and stop the madness. Just an FYI if that happens to you. It was probably me.
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All the little lit up screens in front of me in a movie theater. So distracting!
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I had to turn off email notification on my phone, because I was compelled to check it as emails came in. I need a 12 step program.
I hate seeing children ignored in favor of phones. I wait till she naps or is in bed.
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oh, please, oh, please, oh, please be me!
Peeve: Please stop yelling on your phone on BART. If I have my headphones in and the music up and I can still hear you, you’re annoying EVERYONE
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Texting during a play.
I once saw an actor stop the scene, walk to the edge of the stage and ask the texter to stop.
He got a standing ovation.
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I have coined a new term. Mobecile. Root words are mobile and Imbecile. I find almost all mobile behaviours annoying. Answering texts or calls when you are with another person (unless you have a child at home who’s hair is on fire and the caretaker cannot figure out what to do; but in this case, you really need to consider your choice of caretakers much more carefully). Talking on the phone while ordering. Setting your mobile device to radiate some God-awful noise whenever you receive a text, a call, a tweet, a Facebook status update. Even if they don’t look at the mobile right then, EVERYONE is thinking about it.
And I have a smart phone. I use it only when I’m by myself, and I turn it off when I’m with others. Unless of course I’m out with my husband and left our sons with that caretaker who allows the boys to set fire to their hair. You know how that is.
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I absolutely hate when people text/FB/etc. each other when they could talk face to face – like my teenage relatives who sat one room away from each other and texted. Of course they might have been talking about me and wanted to spare me the embarrassment, so maybe I should thank them?
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Huge pet peeve: That one guy in first class who thinks he’s way too important to shut off his cell phone like everyone else and continues to talk loudly over every PA announcement by the flight attendants telling everyone that they have to shut off their cell phones.
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pet peeve 1) People who assume everyone has unlimited texting, and thus send copious texts, return my calls with texts, and/or get their panties in a bunch when people leave them voicemails.
pet peeve 2) if you don’t have a headset, please don’t call me while you are driving and try to have a conversation with your phone on speaker in your lap. Neither of us will really be able to hear. Thanks!
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I once had a guy I was dating check-in to a restaurant on dodgeball (the old foursquare) when we were on a date. Twenty minutes later, guess who showed up? Yup: HIS EX-GIRLFRIEND. Amazing. So yeah, my pet peeve? People who check-in to foursquare/Facebook when they’re on dates, completing forgetting that by “checking-in” they’re sending out an invite to all XX of their “closest” friends to come and join them.
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My absolute pet peeve is when someone checks smartphone, blackberry, etc. while in mid conversation with you.
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I hate when I’m on the other side of someone committing one of these faux pas. For example, calling someone and starting a casual “how was your day” type conversation, and then they say “can I call you later? I’m at dinner with [whoever]/I’m at the store checking out/I’m driving.” If you can’t talk to me, why did you answer the phone? And if you MUST answer it, why not just tell me you’ll call me back? I don’t want to enable your rudeness!
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Rude, rude, rude….people who’ve ask me to hold on a minute during a phone call, so they call answer another call on their cell phone!
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I expect the general public to do stupid things with their mobile devices (chatting loudly on Muni, texting during movies….the usual), but I absolutely HATE when mobile-addicted friends text/talk on the phone/play with the internet while we’re having brunch or something. I have several perfectly lovely friends who do this on the regular. Hate.
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Inapporpriate ringtones, especially at inappropriate times.
The priest was singing the funeral service at my best friend’s father’s service, and in the middle, “Highway to Hell” starts playing in the background.
It takes 2 seconds to set a phone to vibrate, and no call can be so important that you should interrupt a funeral.
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I went to lunch at a nice Thai restaurant with three co-workers. While we waited to order, and then for our food, all three of them spent the entire time e-mailing on their phones.
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I have a friend who is constantly texting, checking email, on facebook, etc, on her phone when we hang out together. She’s also the kind of person that will stay on the phone with you while she’s buying something at a store. It drives me crazy.
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My biggest pet peeve is when I am trying to communicate with someone face to face whether it be a meeting, lunch date, whatever and the other person is sitting there interacting with their phone. It’s not a replacement for human interaction people!
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Texting in the movies…..I cannot stand it. It’s all dark and cozy and then there is a big light from two rows down….so annoying.
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I am annoyed when people at the check-out are on the pnone!!! Hang up please!
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I get very frustrated when someone I’m having dinner with (just the two of us) answers his or her phone, or texts. I feel like I’m left to fend for myself while someone else becomes the number one priority. Grr.
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People talking loud on a cell phone while in close proximity to others. We don’t need to hear your conversation, really! 🙂
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1) When people talk/text while ordering something or paying for something.
2) Texting and driving.
3) Loud phone conversations in public places.
4) Texting someone else while I’m trying to have a conversation with you.
I really could go on and on….!
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when my kids try to text during dinner! my daughter is so good- with one hand in her sweatshirt pocket texting away and the other hand stuffing her face 🙂 i love her so….
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Without a doubt, it’s hearing someone on the phone in a public bathroom. It’s bad enough that I have to share my noises with the other people in the room, much less broadcast them to the moon and back down on the other side of the planet. No conversation is so important that it cannot wait for a bio break. Even if there were one, it has most assuredly not been any of the ones I’ve been unfortunate enough to overhear.
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My pet peeve is when I’m out with my friend and she doesn’t put down the phone once. We can have an entire conversation and she will never look up from her phone.
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Crossing my fingers! My biggest pet peeve is when you invite a bunch of people over for a party or a social get-together and rather than just pay attention to people and talk and have fun….they sit in the corner with their phone.
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i hate seeing what i call, “the reflex”. like that OCD reflexive gesture of constantly checking your phone… because like, you know, something critical might’ve come in since the last time you checked your phone. 15 SECONDS AGO! i’m not guilty of this. nope.
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Ur in an email.
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After spending last weekend visiting some family, I can now say my biggest pet peeve is texting while driving. On the highway. In traffic. While your child and other people are in the car. Really?! If nothing about the safety issue bugs you, at the very least respect that it’s illegal.
I don’t enjoy people talking loudly on the phone on the bus/in a bathroom stall/in some other close public space, but texting and driving is now at the top of my pet peeve list.
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As a former employment counsellor, what annoyed me the most was clients answering their phones in the middle of our sessions. I specifically tell them that our time together was like training for a job and as such they should treat it like one. Whenever it would happen I would just think “well no wonder you can’t get a job if you’d answer your phone in an interview!!”
Off topic, I really enjoy your blog as you touch on all aspects of life and general awesomeness!
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I hate when people talk on the phone at the table – rude for the people they are with and when they are loud enouh for everyone to hear – so annoying!
http://crankhappenings.blogspot.com
http://sarahcrankphotography.blogspot.com
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Texting me first and then just dropping from the convo… “hey weren’t we just chatting..?” hello, hello??
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when people answer their cell phone during a meal at a restaurant. it really irks me.
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Gah. Talking on a cell phone in a library. Holding a converstaion, not just a quick very quiet slightly mortified conversation, but full on chatting in a silent library situation. Have you no decency?
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“So, Greg said..” Oh, I’m sorry, was I boring you? Is that why you picked up your phone to look at your text/twitter/facebook message that is more important than the person sitting across from you at the restaurant!!?? And yes, I noticed, even though you thought you slyly did it as you “looked in your purse” for something. OY! If we’re at lunch, let’s talk. It’s just an hour.
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Seeing what should (or could) be quality time between a parent and small child, only for the child to be vying (read: begging)for the attention of said parent who clearly cannot be interrupted from texting. Or talking on the phone.
At the park. At the zoo. In the backyard. In the front yard. At the pool. On the walk to school. During tubby time.
I have twin teenage daughters who are the lights of my life. Those little moments were sacred to me and I can’t possibly understand trading them for such interruptions. Not worth it, in my opinion.
When you’re with your child, BE with your child. I invite you to put the phone down. Be with them, in that very moment, and enjoy the their essence. Those moments will not last.
How do you want to be remembered?
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I can’t stand to be visiting with someone who cannot take their eyes away from their phone while talking to me. It’s obvious that their full attention is not on me or our conversation. Really? Why bother going out for coffee, dinner, or coming over to visit if you can’t put your cell phone away for even a brief visit.
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I can’t stand talking on the phone in front of people. I rarely “talk” on the phone in public. It just grates on my nerves to listen to other peoples conversations, so I can’t do it back.
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I hate when I am at dinner with only one other person and they sit there and check their email/FB/whatever the whole time.
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Really anything with a phone is a pet peeve to me–talking, texting, checking FB, playing scrabble, etc. Yuck. If we are hanging out, I don’t understand why someone is taking care of other business.
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