Rules That Are Cool
Here are basic tips for how to mind your manners while using your tech tools
Click here to download a full-color handout for students.
Cell phones: Ask yourself if this the right place to use your device. If you need to take a call or text when you’re out with friends or family, ask them if they mind. Good etiquette, though, says you should put the phone on vibrate or turn it off in social settings. “The rule is that the attention should be on the people you’re with,” says Daniel Post Senning, an etiquette expert with the Emily Post Institute. “You want the people that you’re with to think that they matter.” Additionally, when talking on your phone in a public space, remember that people to not want to hear the details of your life. Keep your volume low and your conversation brief. E-mail: You should always respond to an e-mail from someone you know, ideally within a day or two. If you don’t check your e-mail often, let people know, or they might feel insulted by your delayed response.
MP3 Players: Be aware of the volume level of your music. Test your device to find out what volume people hear outside of the headphone. In public, be sure to keep the volume low enough so others can’t hear it. And, Senning adds, “When you do run into someone you know, you want to take the headphones off or ear buds out.”
Social networking: The most important thing to remember when posting content on a social networking site is that information can always be copied and pasted or forwarded. For this reason, Senning recommends that you “don’t do anything in the digital world that you wouldn’t do on the main street of your home town or the home room of your high school. You don’t have control of what happens at the next level.” If someone you know posts something that involves you that you’re not comfortable with, politely ask him or her to remove it.
