On the one hand, it's kind of neat that a TED conference completely banned electronic devices during presentations at a recent conference in Geneva. If you were in the room while the talk was being given, then you didn't check your cell phone or other device. I thought it was interesting that the author noticed a few people who seemed to take notes in order to keep themselves awake. I have done the same thing when attending presentations that I know will either not interest me or which have no relevance to what I do but are required.
On the other hand, it's kind of disappointing that this is seen as some kind of retro-innovation, returning us to a time when we didn't tune out a speaker in order to check something more important on some handheld device ("The Kardashians did what? OMG!!!).
Many people who speak in public shouldn't but have never been told that, and sitting through one of their demonstrations thereof is surely a chore. But while propping the head upon the hand in order to properly brace it before leaving the lecture hall for the bounding Spanish Main or the dead sea bottoms of dying Mars or the deepest jungles of Africa is a rudeness known only to the perpetrator, lighting one's face with the deadened pallor of the backlit screen disturbs all those around one and is definitely easily known to the speaker.
Who may then call upon you to answer a question, and no one can Google what they did not hear said.
One of the things I have raged about most recently is the way cell phones seem to suck away people's attention. I was taught that paying attention to someone was a way of showing respect.
ReplyDeleteI had a student once who made an appointment with me, and mid-appointment her cell phone buzzed. She looked at it. I asked her if it was an emergency. She said no, it was a "status update" of one of her friends.
I get that the younger generation is "different' in that regard but at that moment I felt like, "Now you know how important your time is to her: not at all. She makes an appointment to discuss her grade but her friend's Facebooking is more valuable to her."
Yes, petty of me, but I get so blasted TIRED of being somewhere, at a meeting, at a social gathering, and seeing some people not taking part (and sometimes others, like me, sitting there in silence, because we don't have smartphones) because the people who live in their phone is more interesting to them.
(I know I'm not very interesting, not as interesting as someone's Facebook status update, but it hurts to be reminded of it so regularly.)
I'd agree with the rudeness of checking the update, but I'm kind of floored that an undergrad made an appointment instead of just showing up and whining :-)
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