Jeffrey O’Brien in Fortune Magazine:
Where is the line when it comes to appropriate cell phone behavior? Is it ok to talk in a crowded restaurant? An elevator? How about interrupting an actual, you know, face-to-face conversation to answer a call?
Then there’s non-voice communications: Is it acceptable to walk while emailing, bumping into people on the sidewalk en route? Texting at the urinal: It’s potentially messy and definitely gross, but is it acceptable? Is it rude to keep reaching into your pocket whenever your BlackBerry buzzes?
Technology may advance according to Moore’s Law, but the way we incorporate gadgets into our lives progresses in fits and starts. Cell phones have progressed from novelty to ubiquity in two short decades, and that ubiquity has begotten a cacophony of voices, buzzes, blips, and blings. Meanwhile, we’re still feeling our way around the associated social norms and mores. What we need is a bill of rights, a list of commandments to help us all get along in peace. . .
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