“This “always-on” reality has disrupted longstanding social norms about when it is appropriate for people to shift their attention away from their physical conversations and interactions with others, and towards digital encounters with people and information that are enabled by their mobile phone”, said Lee Rainie, Pew’s director of internet research.
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Pew asked survey respondents, of which there were 3,217, to think specifically about how they’ve used their phone in recent social gatherings. Americans rarely turn off their devices and all the apps that make our lives better mean we’re attached to our phones.
Well, stop it. Because someone else is probably complaining about you and your rude phone behavior.
“As a general proposition”, wrote researchers Lee Rainie and Kathryn Zickuhr, “Americans view cell phones as distracting and annoying when used in social settings – but at the same time, many use their own devices during group encounters”.
It’s OK to use your smartphone walking down the street or on public transportation.
For example, in adults’ response to questions of situational appropriateness for mobile phones, 96 percent agreed that phones were not okay to use in religious settings and 95 percent in cinemas or “other places where others are usually quiet”. Pew found that 16 percent of people used their phone because they were “no longer interested in what the group was doing”, 15 percent wanted to “connect with others outside of the group”, and 10 percent use a phone to avoid group conversations altogether.
A sizable minority of people – about 22 percent – said they often or occasionally used theirs to avoid interacting with the people around them. Women (41 percent) and those over age 50 (45 percent) are more likely to think cell use hurts the group compared with 32 percent of men and 29 percent of younger cell phone owners.
Many people say they use their phones for purposes connected to that recent gathering. Only 23 percent of cell phone owners stated they used their cell phones in a public place anti-socially.
Pew surveyed 3,000 adults for the study.
It seems cell phone etiquette is alive and well in America. These pro-social behaviors included picture-taking, posting something to Facebook or Twitter, picking up relevant-to-group-discussion information, or connecting with people outside of the group but who are known to the group. Three-fourths also said it was OK on public transit or while waiting in line at the store.
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There’s no going back to a world without cell phones, and smartphone use will only increase the possible etiquette pitfalls facing Americans in the future.
