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 
Games in public! Come on, Angry Birds is more important then the conversation we are having?!?!
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Cell phone use in the public restroom. It’s not a phone booth, yet they give you dirty looks for using the facility while they talk on the phone. And who wants to hear those noises on the other end?
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It’s common, but I’d have to go with people texting while you’re talking to them. Even if it’s 3 or 4 people at a meal — if it’s so important at least excuse yourself first or confirm that it’s ok with everyone. And apologize!
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I’m quite annoyed when the person waiting in line in front of me can’t be bothered to get off their phone when it’s their turn. It always takes so much longer for the person to wait on them, aside from being incredibly rude.
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welcome back from sxsw! it drives me crazy when people leave their cell phone’s sound effects on while in close quarters with others — whether it’s the beeping sound of the keypad when they dial and text, or the various chirps when they receive texts or emails, or the dings and pings from the games they’re playing. if you’re going to be glued to your phone, at least spare everyone else from listening to all the bells and whistles! thanks for the lovely giveaway, maggie.
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I don’t like it when people talk on the phones in public when they should be tending to other things like their unhappy, crying kids or talking to the cashier.
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Talking on your cell phone in a public bathroom!! Gross!
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he replied to a text in the middle of sex.
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I ride the train to and from work every day, and I cannot stand the people that have very loud conversations on their phones. Sometimes I can even hear them when I’m sitting at the other end of the train car.
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Put your phone away when we’re at the table.
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Calling to tell me I should not text you about such-and-such. I should. Because I *can.* And then it’s in writing.
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As a server I refuse to acknowledge you if you are on the phone.
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When you’re spending time with someone and the whole time they’re on their phone tweeting or updating their facebook status, as if experiencing the moment with me is secondary to documenting it for all of your other friends!
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Pet peeve that I’m guilty of…the inability to walk down a hallway without my face glued to the Blackberry because I’m afraid I’ll be bored.
How’s that for sensory overload?
(And also the reason why I frequently ‘forget’ my cell phone. I’m afraid of its power to suck me into the pursuit of the inane.)
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All my friends have learned that if we’re having dinner together the cells go in the bags and put on silent. For the duration of the meal.
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I don’t like it when the person I’ve hired to watch my children talks on the phone while my kids play at the park. On your own time, Missy.
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I work retail. It’s bad enough for someone to be on their phone when they come up to my counter, but even worse if they have a hands-free earpiece. More than once, I’ve been glared at for ‘interrupting’ their conversation…while they hold up the line, and continue to blather on.
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People on the phone while paying the cashier.
How rude can you get?
Seriously!
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Definitely agree with everyone else regarding people texting while in the middle of a conversation with me, or carrying on cell phone conversations in public. But, personally, I hate when I am texting with someone about something important (like where we are meeting, etc), and they just stop texting right in the middle of the conversation for no reason at all. I mean, I know stuff happens, but this is more like they just up and left in the middle of a conversation, and now I am stuck waiting to hear back.
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Oh, the bathroom phone talkers drive me BONKERS! I mean, what the hell? Even if you don’t care if YOUR bathroom time is private, I’d prefer mine be! Argh.
(Also – that bag is totally adorable, so pick me, pick me, pick me! )
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ALL CAPS STILL BOTHERS ME, after all these years. Call me old fashioned.
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I can’t stand it when people walk down the street with music blasting from their phone sans earphones, as if everyone on the street wants to hear your bad idea of music.
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I once interviewed for a job while the interviewer emailed on his Blackberry the entire time I gave my answers. I got the job, but still!
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Speaker phone in a group setting! NEVER without the permission of the other party! YIKES
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Using cell phones around my baby (or any baby, or any pregnant lady)! No testing has been done on the safety of such devices and the developing brain. Be considerate and safe. You wouldn’t smoke around a baby (I hope). Make your call elsewhere too.
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Buzzed texting *is* drunk texting. As I have recently learned. (Ouch.)
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Texting in the middle of an in-person conversation. If it’s urgent (somebody is bleeding, or sobbing, or being chased by an axe murderer), okay… but texting back and forth with three different people during a dinner with somebody you see only once in a blue moon… not so much.
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My father always has his bluetooth headset in his ear, including but not limited to family dinners, Christmas morning, and in the hospital moments after I had given birth to each of my boys and his first pictures with them. Pretty much, all bluetooth people who walk around and make you wonder if they are talking to you have made my list.
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Mine is pretty personally specific. When my husband tries to multitask listening to me and playing Angry Birds, and the next day can’t remember any of the important things I told him.
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Ooo, I’m stealing another person’s answer: music blasting from your headphones. Not only is it annoying to those around you, IT WILL MAKE YOU GO DEAF. Lose-lose.
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Bathroom FB updates, ugh. Thanks, Maggie!
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After three years of being friends and one year of being roommates, I finally cured a friend of the most irritating mobile habit ever: regularly (as in, every time we’d hang out in person) his parents would call, and instead of excusing himself or telling his parents (whom he talks to a minimum of three times a day) that he would call them back, he would simply leave me hanging while he spoke with his parents for upwards of 20 minutes. Eventually I’d just leave the room whenever he did this, telling him that it is BEYOND rude, and he finally got the hint.
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I really hate it when people use a letter or two to shorten a word. R U coming over? Really annoys me. You really aren’t saving that much time!!
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simply put, when people don’t respond. text conversations are still conversations.
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Texting while sharing a meal – especially if it’s just two of you. Nothing like “catching up with a friend” when s/he seem to be focusing all attention elsewhere.
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My biggest pet peeve is when my (college) students are “taking notes” on their laptop while I’m lecturing and they spontaneously start smiling. When I haven’t said anything even remotely funny. Checking facebook, perhaps? Seeing drunk, naked photos of themselves from the night before tagged by some thoughtful friend? Who knows, but it is beyond annoying.
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My peeves, they are many. The general public is rude beyond belief. Aside from the giant “I am an asshole” signals–cell phones in theaters and checkout lines–my least favorite thing is when people on the train let their phone ring (loudly) 18 hundred times. It’s the equivalent of hearing someone hit their snooze button over and over; put the thing on vibrate, already.
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Blasting music from leaky headphones on public transit. I don’t want to listen to a shitty tinny version of whatever insanely annoying song you happen to be listening to…
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I hate when people use cell phones for any purpose while they’re in IRL social situations. Either give your phone conversation your full attention or give it to your social surroundings, but it’s rude to try to do both at the same time.
My mother is notorious for this– she’ll drive 4 hours to visit me, then take a phone call 10 minutes into the visit and talk to her boyfriend for half an hour. So unnecessary!
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Unless it’s a emergency, you should never be texting someone while out with friends–unless you are trying to find out what happened to the friend who was supposed to meet you there!
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My husband does this and it drives me insane–he will answer his phone and either stay in the room with me speaking at an incredibly loud volume, or he will wander around the house. The latter is actually more annoying, because if I get up to go do some small task in another room (or just to get away from his loudness) he will eventually wander in to that room and then give ME the hairy eyeball if I happen to do something loud, like run the blender. My old boss used to do this as well when we were in meetings and it drove me batty. No one wants to hear your conversation, and for heaven’s sake, NO ONE wants to be chased around the house or office by a loud talker!
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I love comment #1 about people calling me AT ALL – pretty much phone calls during work hours are emergency or not at all! And voice mail without a hint of the topic… grr… and the #1 peeve is people on their phone while at the check out! HUMANS BEFORE TECHNOLOGY!
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I was attending a piano performance at Davies Hall last week and was sitting up on the second tier. One rude person kept checking his phone and from where I sat, it appeared to light up the entire orchestra, seating section. I had to close my eyes when he would light up… wanted an usher to tap him so badly….
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Mine is still people who think the bathroom stall is a phone booth. For pity’s sake, who’s that busy that they need to be on the phone when they’re in the john?
The passive-aggressive in me comes out in situations like this, and I have to admit that when someone in the next stall starts talking on their phone…I flush. Repeatedly.
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People who talk on the phone when they are in line and refuse to talk to the person behind the counter.
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I’ve returned to school and find it so irritating when the young co-eds come across and idea/theory that they think makes them sound smart so they call their parents and talk LOUDLY about how this intellectual theory is the reason that they now want to be a write/forensic psychologist/CEO/consultant. (This is especially irritating at the library).
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I catch students using the bathroom and talking on the phone all the time. Gross. How does one wipe while talking on the phone? And how does one explain the flush???
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I destest when someone calls me on their cell and they’re in a store, their car, wherever, and either lose the call, put me on hold to take other calls, or all of a sudden start talking to the check-out person, or asking where the lumber aisle is in Home Depot, etc.
CALL WHEN YOU HAVE TIME TO TALK!
Sorry for yelling.
Thank you.
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It would have to be texting while driving…stop veering into my lane, please!
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Texting in the movie theatre – so annoying! 🙂
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