If you were a client at a business meeting, dinner or .. whatever, with a company you were doing business with, would you be highly offended if they kept texting during your meeting, or half-paying attention to what you are saying or what’s going on around them?
I’m pretty sure your answer would be: HELL YES. They are doing business with my money, and they should darn well pay attention and show some respect!
Unless it’s a personal emergency where something happened there isn’t anything all that important that should be texted/tweeted/written about this very second, rather than waiting until you’re alone.
So why do it with friends or family?
Are we supposed to be more tolerant of your rude behaviour when we’re friends or family?
Why would you treat acquaintances or strangers with a lot more respect than the people you love or are there to perhaps form a friendship with?
Is it just because they write your cheques or pay you, that you feel obligated to be more respectful and considerate of them?
It is the utter opposite for me.
I find it extremely rude and annoying when people I am meeting with, whom I haven’t seen for years, or I’ve just met as friends, whip out their crackberries or their iphones and start texting to friends, keeping up an instant messaging repartee with 3 other people while trying to sit down and have dinner with me.
I know I am not the most qualified person to be annoyed by this, seeing as I don’t place a lot of importance on cellphones (I forget to bring it with me about 90% of the time), but it is extremely rude to do so.
I can forgive/understand checking your phone once in a while because it’s really time-sensitive, or you’re waiting for friends to get back from the washroom, so you quickly check your messages.
Or maybe we’re waiting for a third friend to arrive, so we’re checking to see if he/she is just running late and has texted us with their time of arrival.
But otherwise, PUT THE #$(@!&$ SMART/STUPID PHONE AWAY. PERIOD.
Think about it this way, if I started pulling out a book to read in the middle of our conversation or I was SO engrossed in my novel that I only give you half answers or my attention half of the time, wouldn’t you feel absolutely slighted and think I was the rudest human being on earth?
It tells you that I’d rather be reading a book than talking to you.
So why is constantly checking or reading a phone instead of talking to people you’re with, any more acceptable?
It’s even worse when you’re out with very social-media-intense people who tweet all the time and facebook like crazy. They’ll start taking pictures and uploading it to twitter RIGHT AWAY, and tweeting about the great dinner and friends they’re with…. while they’re with them.
Why can’t you do it AFTER we’re done meeting? That’s what I would do, because I want to spend actual face-to-face time with you, talking and being together.
Not talking to other people about us meeting up and being together and how much fun YOU are having!
It’s like talking about your living your life rather than actually living your life in the moment.
Frankly, with those friends who are CONSTANTLY on their phones without being apologetic or aware of it, I just don’t meet up with them again.
If they met up with me and did the constant every-5-minutes cellphone checking/texting thing, I just assume they and their cellphone would rather be together alone, or they’d rather be ANYWHERE ELSE ON EARTH but with me and talking to me.
I don’t want to meet with people only to be ignored for other people.
In that case, don’t call me and I won’t call you.
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Be more tolerant, having their phone out does not mean they are not paying attention to you. If you start to speak, I’m sure they are still listening and paying full attention. If there are things that you want to say, just call them and say it over the phone. Some people just want to meet up with old buddies, not tell a whole biography on the story of their life.
wow totally agree with this and all the comments. I find its gotten unreal at my work. We have a huge cafeteria and when people are on break they no longer talk to each other. Instead they play games on their phones or they check Facebook. There is hardly any talking. Unless its about the newest phone coming out, of course.
Id go even one more step and say not only are we rude but we are losing our understanding of how to have a conversation
YES! I feel like I’m 70 years old whenever I’m around anyone under 30, because I have to grit my teeth to keep from giving them a tongue lashing for their awful manners, especially when it comes to phones. What really gets me is when people working (especially in retail) are on their phones and give me a dirty look when I walk up to the cash-desk and interrupt their conservation.
I’m in total agreement. Bill and I don’t read books or newspapers at the dinner table while we are eating. This is a request I made early on and we’ve stuck with it. In winter when the fire is on and the room is cozy we might both read after the meal is finished and the table is cleared, but never before. If anyone insisted on reading / texting / phoning, etc at the table I would ask them to leave…possibly without their food. (By the same token, when I’m watching TV, I’m really watching and I don’t appreciate conversations).
I can’t believe the lack of civility we are now experiencing. Everyone is connected to everyone and thinks they are oh, so important. Hang up the telephone and enjoy like. I recently attended a festival and I could not believe how many people were on their cell phones describing the festival. Cell phones are used only in the case of an emergency, to let someone know you are going to be late, or to call ahead for an order. It isn’t your life.
HAhaha, oh man, I agree. I HATE it. And people do treat family/friends more sh!tty than strangers when it comes to cell phones. I’m always asking family members when we’re all having dinner if that text needs to happen RIGHT NOW. Why can’t it wait?? Does it even need to be said? Seems to me like people are sending pictures and texts of things that we’d never have communicated back in the day. I dont’ need a picture of your dinner, I don’t care!
Hahaha, hilarious about pulling out a book on someone instead of a cell phone. Hahah, that would be funny. And it is the same idea. Its ridiculous if it’s a book which means it’s ridiculous if it’s a cell too.