The Wired Are A Rude Bunch

From: http://www.forbes.com/2005/07/28/technology-rudeness-wireless-cx_fr_0728rude.html?partner=media_newsletter

Digital Media
The Wired Are A Rude Bunch
Fahmida Y. Rashid, 07.28.05, 6:00 AM ET

Americans may be getting ruder as they get more wired.

While technology, such as cell phones, e-mail and instant messaging,
have in many ways made life easier, these same devices may make users
lazy and oblivious to their surroundings. The constant pressure on
workers to be accessible means manners often take a backseat. In
consumer circles, lots of people apparently believe that because they
can take or make a phone call, they should.

In a recent national poll by market research group Synovate, 68% of
Americans claimed to observe poor cell phone etiquette at least once
per day. Eighteen percent said they ran into poor e-mail etiquette.
The study noted that the Americans showed the poorest etiquette when
using the very devices they rely on the most (52% said they would
"die" if their phones and e-mails were taken away).

"Poor tech etiquette is something most of us don't really think about
as we pick up our cell phones or send an e-mail," said Steve Levine,
senior vice president at Synovate.

The survey results follow on the heels of a marketing push by a
company called Moderati, which sells ring tones, cell phone wallpaper
and ring-back tones. The company claims that "nothing says 'I hate
you' like a DisTone." A DisTone is a rather unfriendly greeting users
assign to callers they want to avoid.

"Those with enemies, like me, let their phone screen calls for them,
assigning songs like 'American Idiot,' 'Shut Up' and 'F.U. Right Back'
to choice callers," says Cindy Mesaros, vice-president of marketing at
Moderati.

Some DisTones are singles, like TLC's "Creep," and others are
voiceovers—"little ding dong is calling"—on a musical background.
While Mesaros couldn't say how many silent tones had been downloaded,
she noted the popularity of the DisTones versus regular ring tones. A
DisTone called "$#!*head On The Phone" beat out new singles from Fat
Joe, the Bravery and Coldplay in terms of total downloads in a single
day. In addition, six DisTones combined had more than ten times as
many downloads as Coldplay's new single, over the past week.

The person yakking loudly on the cell phone in public places, like a
bus, store or (the worst) a restaurant, has unfortunately become a
common sight. As airlines ponder whether to allow passengers to use
cell phones en flight, critics complained about being trapped into
listening to fellow passenger's conversations.

According to the Synovate study, 72% of Americans view the worst cell
phone habit as unnecessarily loud conversations in public places,
while 65% say the worst e-mail habits is sending along chain e-mail
and using poor grammar. Levine noted that in a business setting,
e-mails with misspellings and errors in punctuation annoyed recipients
and made a bad impression.

The study allowed responders to use their own definition of poor tech
etiquette, says Levine. A quick Web search has some common ones, such
as speaking loudly in a public area, responding to messages or e-mail
while in a conversation or a meeting with someone else, even having an
extended conversation on the phone in the middle of a conversation or
a meeting. There are plenty of sites devoted to proper cell phone
etiquette, which outline basic tips, like asking permission before
photographing strangers with a mobile-phone camera, not shouting and
not answering the phone when sitting in a restaurant with a group of
people. Other sites point out e-mail and messaging etiquette.

Synovate acknowledged it is not done analyzing the data, which the
firm plans to examine further in order to determine rudeness by
demographics, for example. However, the adults of tomorrow may be
learning bad habits today. In a report on teens and technology by the
Pew Internet & American Life Project, researchers found that 39% of
American teens aged 12 to 17 admitted to saying things over text
messaging or instant messaging that they would not normally say to
someone in person. The researchers speculated that the distance
provided by technology made it easier to be confrontational.

The Pew study also found that teens (girls, especially) use IM buddy
lists as a means to exclude people from social circles.

Last month, a U.K. survey of 770 teenagers found that 14% had been
threatened or harassed using text messages. Bullies had taken
embarrassing or intimidating pictures with mobile phone cameras and
either sent them to other people or to the victims themselves.
Assaults on children were recorded on mobile phones and sent via video
messaging. More than one-in-ten respondents to that survey said they
had bullied others via text messaging.

Synovate's Levine says technology gives people unprecedented freedom
without compromising their ability to do their jobs or to be found by
friends and family. While business users may be sitting in meetings
sending text messages or e-mailing, he didn't think that they were the
only culprits.

Cell phone providers and carriers, including Nokia (nyse: NOK - news -
people ), Verizon Communications (nyse: VZ - news - people ) and
Sprint (nyse: FON - news - people ), have in the past run campaigns
asking users to be considerate of others. Shorts featuring "Mr.
Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man" have become a fixture at Loew's
Theaters.

Levine asks his seminar participants to turn off all laptops and to
put away any personal devices during his presentations. "The
organization, or the person in charge, has to say something," says
Levine. "Otherwise, the people won't stop."

The tech annoyances do not outweigh the benefits, but as Levine says,
"It might be time for Americans to snap out of it."