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 
One of my peeves is when I hear someone near me say something like “Hey, how’s it going?” or “Do you know what time the matinee ends?” or “Would you like to go behind that fence and french kiss me?” (OK I made that last one up)…and I answer them because I think they’re talking to me and they turn and point to their ear where they are either holding their cell phone or have their bluetooth attached (another pet peeve for another day) and they give me a look like I should know better.
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I drive to work on PCH. I can’t even tell you how many people are texting while driving. Completely insane!!
Love your bags by the way!!
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I hate it when my co-worker goes to a meeting and doesn’t silence her phone. I am treated to an annoying little “Blip” “Blip” sound every time she gets a text. She gets a lot of texts.
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Oh my, I have so many… but listening to someone (loudly) chat about their recent date or doctor’s visit while they are using a stall in the ladies room ranks right up there as one of the worse. My solution, flush multiple times.
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Ohhh, I have to go with the talking on the phone while checking out thing. I’ve gotten off the phone with my GRANDMOTHER while checking out because I think it’s so rude. Plus, seriously, it slows you up during payment and is just annoying to the people behind you. You can call them back in two minutes.
Please let me win. Please let me win.
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My pet peeve is people needing to be on the phone 24/7. Turn off the mobile phones!!!
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Calling your (fill in the blank) the moment the airplane lands to tell them the airplane landed. Like there aren’t a bunch of other ways for your (fill in the blank) to find that out without your seatmate listening to your inane banter.
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My biggest mobile peeve is when I’m crossing a street and someone nearly hits me because they are too preoccupied by their phone call that they drive straight through the stop sign on my street. What’s worse is when they then get rude and snippety saying I shouldn’t be crossing & they have the stop sign! Would happen just about every week if I weren’t too aware, I wait for the drivers kind enough to stop & motion me to walk… 😉
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My husband charges his iphone on his nightstand every night. The charger glows. Blue. And it’s brighter than a standard nightlight. If I wake up in the middle of the night I swear I feel like I’m being abducted by space aliens. He loves that thing. You spoon a handbag, my husbands spoons his iphone. At least it’s not another woman….
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Ringback tones – you know when you call someone, and instead of hearing a normal ringing sound in your phone, you hear some awful song that you’d never in a million years subject yourself to. Taste in music is very–individual.
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When people text on the phone while you are having a chat with them face to face. hello! Am I not more important than that?!
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Texting while driving is the worst. Not merely rude but life-threatening.
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In Japan people has the manner of not talking on the phone when they’re riding on public transportation, what a great custom!
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I used to teach a small design class, maybe 10 people – and my students would start texting during the lecture portion, then ask me to repeat later what I’d been saying while they texted. Grrrrrr.
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