What Are Your Personal Tech Etiquette Rules?

While technology continues to grow and become more invasive in our lives, it is becoming crucial to establish rules of common courtesy while using our latest gadgets so as to not intrude, disturb, or otherwise annoy our fellow humans with our digital counterparts. Over the years of daily tech usage, we’ve subconsciously established these rules based on the “how you would like to be treated” mentality. After the jump we’ll fill you in on what we believe to be courtesy steps to respect others in our digital world.

Don’t walk while listening to music. Living in a city, with friends and acquaintances all around, we never know when we’re going to unknowingly run into one. Rather than fumble with our iPhone and headphones in order to prepare ourselves for a spontaneous interaction, we simply choose to put the music away and enjoy the sounds of the city as we head from place to place so we could quickly jump into a friendly conversation if a friend approaches us. Furthermore, our biggest fear is when a friend is across the street or behind us and calls our name, without knowing we were listening to music, and assume we were simply ignoring them.

Don’t play with your phone while being serviced. Whether you're in line at a cashier or waiting to deposit a check at a bank, we think it is best to hold off on checking your Facebook feed or trying to kill that last pig in Angry Birds for a minute. Even if the employee isn’t necessarily speaking to you at that moment, we think it is polite to give them your full attention so they don’t feel uncomfortable disturbing you from your phone when it comes time to speak to you.

Don’t play music loud in a public setting. Being a student, we spend a lot of time hanging around the studio getting work done. Typically, there are others present in the studio working equally as diligently. Occasionally, there is someone who decides to play their music straight from their laptop speakers so the entire room is subjected to the sounds. We think this is really rude and easily remedied with a pair of headphones. Not only do people have different tastes in music, but some simply like to work in silence so we are always sure to pack headphones. This equally applies to loud car stereos which bug us to no end.

No phones while eating out. Simple enough: when you’re out to a meal with a friend, family, employee, boss, or significant other, we think the phone should stay in your pocket unless you’re expecting a crucial text/phone call/email. Obviously some meals are more formal than others so there is of course some leniency here but in general we like to give our party our full attention.

Here are more articles relevant to tech etiquette:
Should Dinner Guests Check Their Phone at the Door?
Do You Switch Off Your Phone When You Are With Friends?
"My Phone is Off" Gear Lets Guests Know Their #1

Comments (7)

Oh, tech rudeness is a hugh pet peeve of mine. Here are some that I wish people would follow:

-DON'T listen to your headphones up so loud that I sitting next to you on the bus (or even from the other end of it) can hear every single word as if you didn't even have on headphones. I really don't want to listen to everyone else's tunes.

-DON'T put people on speaker in public. A) We all don't need to hear the other end of the conversation, and B) they might not know they have an unwitting audience and inadvertently blab something incredibly inappropriate that EVERYone else can hear...not that I've ever witnessed this or anything...

-Turn OFF the darned incoming text message sound when you're texting in public It's SOOOO annoying to hear bleeps and buzzes every ten seconds or so. There's this guy who rides my bus in the morning, and he texts non-stop...he incoming sound? Very loud sonar blips. I feel like I'm riding the Red October to work. Ugh.

-If you're not going to answer a particular call, hit 'ignore' when the call comes in, or if you leave your phone at your desk while you're away in the ladies'/men's room or at lunch or something, turn off the ringer so we don't all have to listen to your annoying ringtone over and over and over.

-If you're going to have a subwoofer in an apartment (which really should be banned), then sound-dampen your place. Loud music is one thing, and I can wear earplugs, but earplugs do nothing when I can feel your music.

-If you're chatting it up on your cell and get on a bus, sit down in a park, etc., and there's plenty of room, please think about where you sit. If tons of seats are open, the kind thing would be not to sit right behind/next to the person who's obviously reading. Not that one can expect silence on a bus, but if there's an option, be nice.

-Don't answer the phone in the library/church/other usually silent place and answer the phone with "I can't talk right now..." NOT ANSWERING would convey the very same message quite effectively. Hmm...I got her voicemail...she must not be able to answer....imagine that.

-If you're on a call at the grocery store, wait until you're done with the call to go through checkout. Don't waste my time because you're distracted. Seriously.

Don't have long phone conversations in confined spaces (read: buses and elevators)! If I can't move away from you, it's not the time to talk.

It's crazy how much personal information I've picked up from people on the phone next to me-- including SSNs and credit card numbers.

astrass -- ditto on overheard information. I live in the DC area, and I've heard both sides (via speakerphone) of conversations between people who obviously (because of conversation content) work in jobs where we're not supposed to hear the information being shared...like DoD and Homeland Security workers... Yikes.

If you must use the rest room while talking on the phone, please vacate the stall as soon as you are done with the rest room business at hand. You should not make people wait while you finish up your call.

My rules for me: The phone gets turned off if I'm out with friends, or dining with friends, unless there is a specific need to keep it on, like someone's lost and late and may need to call for directions.

I don't walk the streets listening to music, but that's mostly a safety factor. I live in a large city which is pretty safe, but crime does happen. I need to be able to hear what is going on around me.

People make me crazy nowadays with the phones (talking/texting/internet)! Is your Farmville really more important than a face-to-face conversation with a friend or family member?

My personal guidelines (that I wish others would follow!):

1. No phones at dinner. Whether eating in or out. It's rude. Dinner time is great conversation/social time.
2. No texting/internet/games on your phone when you're doing something with someone. Playing a board game with family, exploring a museum with friends, doesn't matter what it is - being present mentally as well as physically is important.
3. No talking on the phone in the bathroom. Is your conversation really so important that it can't wait 5 minutes? Seriously?
4. No texting/internet during meetings at work. This should be obvious, but so many people do it. It's rude and looks bad.

I sound a bit like a stick-in-the-mud, but I'm a firm believer that what's going on in the present time and place is more important than whatever's happening on your phone.

I just stick to the rule 'no phones in social situations'. Any time it could be considered rude to talk on the phone I just switch it to vibrate.

The biggest pet peeve for me is people who are on their phone while being serviced. As someone who works behind a counter for a lot of the day, it is extremely uncomfortable to give someone on the phone the service they usually need or expect when you don't want to interrupt their inane conversation.

I favour common sense over blanket rules, so I agree with all of them except the first one.

If I want to walk around the city listening to music, I will. Otherwise why on earth would I own a portable music device? I'm concentrating on where I'm going and I don't have it up full blast, so chill. It's no big deal.

My pet peeve though, working in cafes is people talking on their phone and expecting me to take their order while they're doing so! How on earth is that even possible? Incredibly disrespectful.