– Mobile manners are getting worse, according to 81 percent of 2,000 Americans recently surveyed by Intel. Ninety-two percent of those surveyed said they wish the public would get more respectful with their mobile etiquette. Could you be one of the offenders? Forbes.com recently profiled some of the worst mobile manner offenses. Some of the offenses:
1. Spending too much time with your phone instead of people. The true “Social Networking is in the room”. As hard as it is to believe, people still prefer face to face Networking over the “device” Networking.
2. Having your smartphone on the table. You don’t want to just clear your elbows from the table. Etiquette experts also say it’s rude to have your phone on a dinner table or desk when with a client. It can be distracting to others.
3. Loudly annoying others. Loud talking on a mobile device is a commonly cited pet peeve when it comes to mobile behavior. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t care who overhears your conversations with the doctor, it’s that no one else wants to hear your personal calls,” Post says. Try to keep the personal calls more personal and out of earshot from others.
4. Having not-so-good vibrations. A lot of people try to silence their phones by putting it on vibration mode, but etiquette experts say that can sometimes be more distracting than a ring if a phone is constantly vibrating on a table. Instead, always keep your device on silent mode when with clients or at meetings.
5. Sneaking in social networking. One common complaint focused on people who connect through Facebook or other social sites when talking to face-to-face with people in the room. Save it for later. Human Resources managers refer to it as “social notworking” when doing it in meetings.
As much as we “All” have our down falls to when it comes to our “device” networking, we should make sure we are still staying in touch with reality and make sure we are following proper etiquette.
Finally, as a mother and watching my children grow up in the “Networking” world of ours with their “devices” in hand, I realize that I have to make them put them down and shut them off to regroup and come back to “Family Networking”.
