Toward a New E-Etiquette

The Ann Arbor News reports that the debate about banning laptops is making its way beyond the classroom. And rather than tie laptop bans to beliefs about whether or not people are absorbing information, the complaint in boardrooms and elsewhere is that laptop use is just rude.

Going laptopless: It's just decent exposure

Multi-tasking no excuse for rudeness
Thursday, April 03, 2008

Especially during the days of the dot-com boom, we'd frequently hear calls for Ann Arbor to become the Silicon Valley of the Midwest - emulating the California tech hub's economic vibrancy and entrepreneurial culture.

Though the shine of Silicon Valley has dulled somewhat since then, there's at least one trend there that could catch on: going "topless.''

Laptopless, that is.

As the Los Angeles Times reported this week, a growing number of companies are banning laptop computers and other devices - including BlackBerrys, iPhones and other communication devices - from meetings. Here's why (and it's a big surprise): Employees get bored at meetings and start e-mailing, texting and surfing the Internet instead of paying attention to what's happening in the conference room.

Let's face it - this isn't limited to the corporate world. We've all seen elected officials look at their laptop screens more than at the people talking during public-comment sessions. Teachers, too, fight for attention with their electronic rivals.

Some would call it multi-tasking. Others call it rude.

One thing's for sure - we'll likely be seeing more of this behavior, not less.

And like any trend, this phenomenon is being studied by academic researchers.

"It's increasingly difficult to get people's undivided attention,'' Stanford University professor Pamela Hinds, who studies the effects of technology on groups, told the Times. "People would argue they are attending to the most important information without any loss of participation, but in fact they aren't fully there.''

There are two things at play: 1) the often mind-numbing irrelevance of what's done and said in meetings, and the unwillingness of people to waste their time; and 2) the use of laptops and other electronic devices to avoid doing things (like listening to your boss, teacher or constituent) that aren't always pleasant or entertaining.

The old cliché is true: There's a reason why it's called work.

Banning laptops is certainly one solution, but it should be coupled with a closer look at why people are turning away from what's happening in the room. Are the meetings necessary? Are the classroom lessons engaging?

As for public-comment sessions, well, elected officials are just going to have to gut it out. There's no way to dress up constituent complaints - nor, really, should there be. Sometimes going topless is just the right thing to do. In this case, it's called listening.

While the pendulum is currently swinging to the extreme of banning laptops, text messengers, etc., when it settles back in the middle, we'll likely find ourselves with some new etiquette rules for incorporating all this techology into our daily lives in a way that leverages the benefits without sending the wrong message.