Over the last few years, mobile technology has made some extraordinary advances. Things we could never have imagined have become a normal part of our lives.
And it doesn’t stop there. Development continues apace and the future is bursting with exciting potential applications.
But while we are rightly excited about these future opportunities, it’s not all good news.
I feel that there is an ugly side to all this progress in mobile technology that sometimes has me lamenting the impact it is having on our behaviour.
I wonder if any of these scenarios ring true to you:
You are catching up with a friend for a coffee and a chat in a cafe when you spy two other people doing exactly the same at another table. Except they aren’t. They are technically at the same venue, but they are both on their mobiles. To me, this is the digital equivalent of looking over the shoulder of the person you are talking to at a party in case there is someone more interesting elsewhere.
Or maybe you are on a bus when the person behind you receives (and takes) a call and proceeds to talk loudly about their day and what they are doing tonight, thereby subjecting other passengers to the minutiae of their life, usually at high volume.
Perhaps you have entered a lift in the morning with a cheery “good morning” to the other lift inhabitants, only to discover that they have far more important mobile-based business to attend to during the 60 second lift journey and are thus unable to answer you.
Or maybe a client laments the fact that “they couldn’t get hold of you on your mobile”, despite that fact that it was in the evening and you were actually enjoying some non-work time with your family with your mobile safely turned off.
Or then again it could be you are giving a presentation and look out into the audience to see some attendees more intent on returning emails than in listening to the presentation in hand (which has probably been rearranged several times so that they can attend)
Any of these ring true to you? Any other examples I’ve overlooked?
Now I love my mobile as much as the next person and I’m not suggesting a return to a pre-mobile age of landlines, faxes and telexes (remember them?), but I am saying that mobile technology and good manners don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
Are you with me or am I just a lone voice in the wilderness?
Anyway, must dash now – just heard my phone bleeping.
