•Don’t be obnoxious when on the phone with someone else.
•When speaking on the phone with someone, don’t speak loudly and disrupt other people or those trying to do activities or have conversations near you. Make sure to speak at a respectable volume when on the phone and use proper manners when speaking to those on the other end of the line.
•Don’t be on the phone when in an important meeting or class.
•In an important meeting or a class, don’t be on the phone. Keep distractions from it to a minimum in order to maximize the learning experience and that of others.
•Avoid texting or calling if it could disrupt the meeting or physical conversations.
•Answering a call or text when being spoken to by someone or taking a call when preoccupied is considered rude. Proper etiquette would be to silence the phone or ignore the text, waiting until the conversation or activity is over before replying.
•If using the phone is a must, keep the ringer turned down or on silent so as not to disturb others.
•Having a loud or obnoxious ringtone or notification sound go off when in public is sometimes embarrassing and rude, depending on the situation. To avoid this, simply turn the volume down or silence the phone when in public or class.
•Private information can be forwarded, so do not send it.
•Important information is leaked all of the time in this day and age, it could happen to anyone. Private information is best kept off of social media and messaging to avoid it getting out or spread without consent.
In this generation, families are connected more than ever through cellphones and social media. What used to take hours, or even days to receive, now takes only a few seconds, or minutes at the most. Connecting to one another is quick, simple, and very distracting. Today’s youth don’t understand how to connect physically with one another. Due to the lack of face-to-face communication, they lack the necessary social skills to communicate in person. One way to combat this is to teach proper cellphone etiquette to this generation as young people so they develop these social skills early on.
Cell Phone Etiquette
By Katie Johnson