Remember phone booths? A couple of decades ago, they used to be actual booths. Superman changed in them. College kids squished into them. The rest of us were content just to walk in, sit down, pull the door closed, and make a private call in a public place. Then, the phone booths morphed into mini public phone "shells"—not as big as a booth, not as private. Now even the mini booths are disappearing, and people make private calls in the middle of public spaces.

As soon as someone puts a mobile phone up to their ear, something seems to disconnect in their brain to remind them that they are not in a phone booth. They're in a waiting room, a theater lobby, a grocery store, a commuter bus, an airplane, a church, a fast food or fancy dining restaurant—and they're not alone. Yet, we've all seen them—and heard them—the people who pump up the volume and broadcast confidential or intimate details. Or boring ones.

Minding your mobile manners isn't just about cell phone etiquette, but also about respectful and successful business practices, because how you act when you're using your device reflects on you and your company.

After reading an articulate rant by marketing guru Alf Nucifora, Nucifora Consulting Group, I reached him on his mobile phone. We share some strong opinions about the unfortunate trend away from civility with the rise of personal technology.

"The worst (example) for me"—I could almost hear Alf gritting his teeth—"is the self-important person on the plane or in an airport lobby. I can tell the difference between someone who talks loudly and … someone who manufactures the loudness! They obviously want everyone looking at them." Everyone does look at the loud mobile phone user, but not with admiration. It’s more akin to someone who has attracted the attention of a mime: everyone moves away and avoids eye contact."

I love the idea of a virtual phone booth, something like a mobile ‘cone of silence’ or force field that would surround the person who is chatting loudly, oblivious to their surroundings. Until someone invents this, here are some simple guidelines:

• Keep it down. Your voice and your ringer need to be at the lowest possible setting. In a public space, set your device on vibrate and put it in your pocket or belt carrier. With the noise in a public place, you're more likely to feel your phone than hear it anyway. The vibrate setting on your Windows Mobile powered device will help ensure that you don’t miss an important call.
• Take it outside. Just because the phone rings or alerts you when you are with family, friends, or business associates doesn't mean you have to have to carry on a conversation there. I guarantee that nobody you're sitting with wants to hear your half of a conversation. You, as well as your device, are mobile. If you have glanced at the caller ID and decide you must take the call, then do excuse yourself from the dinner or conference table and take the call in a more private setting. The new Windows Mobile powered Treo700w from Verizon provides another option, called "ignore with SMS," that lets its users send a short text message telling the caller why they can’t talk right now.
• Turn it off. Hearsay, I know. But unless your job or your family needs you to be on call, you'll probably be fine without your mobile phone for a short while—at least long enough to have breakfast at home or dinner out. If this worries you, you should talk to someone about it. Let the voicemail program earn its keep.

E-mail, IM, and text messaging manners

I love these features. The ability to read and send timely messages whenever and wherever is one of the reasons I carry a Windows Mobile powered device. But I’ll admit it: sometimes I’m as guilty as the next gal of being distracted and immersed in cyberspace instead of real space. Have you ever seen a couple of people sitting silently at a table, hunched over thumbing away on their mini-keyboards? I might be one of them.

• Be a Ninja. For quite a while now, movie theaters have been playing "courtesy ads" to remind people to turn off their mobile phone ringers—and for an obvious reason: to minimize distractions that detract from the experience. As a conference presenter, Nucifora says it bothers everyone when your device rings in the middle of a speech. Perhaps even worse, however, is the person who has their device on vibrate—as they are supposed to—but yet leaps like they're sitting on fire ants and stumbles across a row of knees and into the lobby when it goes off. Instead, sit in an aisle seat and, when your silent mode alerts you, take a lesson from Ninjas: take a deep breath and exit stealthily.



• Look who's talking! I’m sure most of us have been in a meeting where people around the table paid far more attention to their mobile devices or laptops than the person speaking. That’s rude. You’re basically telling that person that they’re not important.
  

  Nucifora once saw a lawyer clean out his mobile e-mail inbox while meeting with a client. If that lawyer were your teenager, you'd probably take his device away.
  
  

• Do one thing well. Researchers Joshua Rubenstein Ph.D., David Meyer Ph.D., and Jeffrey Evans Ph.D. showed that multitasking carries a hidden "time cost" and may not really mean we're getting more done. The American Psychological Association (APA) published their findings back in 2001, in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.
  

  According to the APA, multitasking actually wastes time because your brain has to constantly switch gears – a process that itself takes time. So while someone is sending an IM and talking to you, they may feel as if they are getting twice as much done, but in reality the constant quick shifts of their attention can actually lower productivity and cause mistakes. It's also an error in judgment, if you think multitasking goes unnoticed in your family or business circle. ("Hmmm? What did you say?")

Although Rubenstein of the Federal Aviation Administration may have been most concerned about the effects of multitasking on pilots and air traffic controllers, the practice carries a severe personal cost for all of us, even if it isn’t life-threatening. Giving a boss, a colleague, a client, or a partner just half of your attention can be career threatening. Who wants to work with someone who isn’t really focused on what they’re doing? Minding your mobile manners isn’t just the right thing to—it’s also good business.

Since I'm sure your manners are fine, it's ok by me if you copy this article and leave it on somebody's desk. Or, if this article hits really close to home, on somebody's pillow.

Tyson Greer
Chief Executive Officer
Ambient Insight, LLC.
 Tyson@AmbientInsight.com

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Reference
This article was originally published on the Microsoft Windows Mobile Web site. Click here to link to the original publication.