Not long ago, I went to a public relations event and I ran into several people that I had not seen in in quite some time. We had barely said hello, when suddenly swoosh, out came the cell phones and the texting began with fervor.
It occurred to me, as I stood there trying to see their faces over their phones, that this is acceptable behavior now. If I'm talking to someone, it's perfectly all right if they whip out their phone and start Tweeting, texting or checking out something online, ignoring those around them in process.
Granted, this is acceptable in the workplace, but now it's seeped into social settings, and in public relation groups, which is surprising.
I used to work at a company where it was standard procedure for everyone to bring their laptops to every meeting. I often wondered how we expected to gain an advantage over the competition when half of our brains were watching our email and the other half was sporadically paying attention to the conversation. No one was entirely present in the room, so how were we expected to put our minds together and come up with something brilliant?
Now we have the same audacious problem in our social settings, but instead of limiting our creativity, it's making people feel uncomfortable.
David Carr, a business columnist for The New York Times, wrote an article on this topic, and it was clear he struck a chord with a lot of people based on the more than 200 responses it ellicited.
He explained that while he was presenting on a panel last month at a technology conference titled, "I'm So Productive, I Never Get Anything Done," an attendee's comment made everyone stop in their tracks.
"When people are out and about socializing with people they need to just put everything down," he said. "It's acceptable when you're at home or at work when you're distracted by things, but we need to learn to give personal respect to each other."
According to Carr, 'His words brought sudden and tumultuous applause. It was sort of a moment, given that we were sitting amid some of the most digitally devoted people in the hemisphere. Perhaps somewhere on the way to the merger of the online and offline world, we had all stepped across a line without knowing it."
After reading this article, I thought it made some great points.
Please don't get me wrong, I'm all for using every communication channel and digital device at our disposal, but I was glad to read that even the trailblazers of digital technology think we have pushed the limits of our personal spaces.
Hopefully, this sentiment will trickle down to the masses and we can feel confident that a Tweet won't encourage a person to tune out their face-to-face companionship.
It occurred to me, as I stood there trying to see their faces over their phones, that this is acceptable behavior now. If I'm talking to someone, it's perfectly all right if they whip out their phone and start Tweeting, texting or checking out something online, ignoring those around them in process.
Granted, this is acceptable in the workplace, but now it's seeped into social settings, and in public relation groups, which is surprising.
I used to work at a company where it was standard procedure for everyone to bring their laptops to every meeting. I often wondered how we expected to gain an advantage over the competition when half of our brains were watching our email and the other half was sporadically paying attention to the conversation. No one was entirely present in the room, so how were we expected to put our minds together and come up with something brilliant?
Now we have the same audacious problem in our social settings, but instead of limiting our creativity, it's making people feel uncomfortable.
David Carr, a business columnist for The New York Times, wrote an article on this topic, and it was clear he struck a chord with a lot of people based on the more than 200 responses it ellicited.
He explained that while he was presenting on a panel last month at a technology conference titled, "I'm So Productive, I Never Get Anything Done," an attendee's comment made everyone stop in their tracks.
"When people are out and about socializing with people they need to just put everything down," he said. "It's acceptable when you're at home or at work when you're distracted by things, but we need to learn to give personal respect to each other."
According to Carr, 'His words brought sudden and tumultuous applause. It was sort of a moment, given that we were sitting amid some of the most digitally devoted people in the hemisphere. Perhaps somewhere on the way to the merger of the online and offline world, we had all stepped across a line without knowing it."
After reading this article, I thought it made some great points.
Please don't get me wrong, I'm all for using every communication channel and digital device at our disposal, but I was glad to read that even the trailblazers of digital technology think we have pushed the limits of our personal spaces.
Hopefully, this sentiment will trickle down to the masses and we can feel confident that a Tweet won't encourage a person to tune out their face-to-face companionship.