People seem to be all thumbs these days. As I drive along Douglas Street to and from work, I see people at bus stops or walking along the sidewalks captivated by tiny glowing screens, their thumbs working overtime as they peck out messages.
Even in the middle of face-to-face conversations, phone users are sneaking looks at their text messages.
I wonder what communications are so important that they demand such complete attention. But I would have to have a wiretapping warrant to find out. The Supreme Court has ruled that text messages are as private as voice phone calls, and to listen in on them requires the same type of warrant as tapping a phone line.
I’m not about to apply for one of those warrants, primarily because it’s a privilege normally reserved for law-enforcement agencies, but mostly because I don’t want to have to read those messages, any more than I want to hear people’s verbal telephone conversations.
The high court did well in protecting the right of privacy — now it should make it mandatory that phone calls of all kinds be kept private, particularly in grocery store checkout lines, restaurants and on public transit. It was progress when single-number phone service replaced party lines in rural areas, and neighbours could no longer listen in on phone calls. We seem to have taken a few steps backward.
Awfully handy, these gadgets, for keeping track of each other, sending reminders and finding your way. We’re going to have to find new terminology — phone just doesn’t cover it.
Sure, they’re called smartphones, but a lot of unsmart things happen because of them. For one thing, manners have been tossed out the window.
It’s more than discourteous to text while driving, but laws have been enacted to cover that aspect. New rules are needed, not ones dictated by legislators or judges, but ones dictated by common courtesy.
Courtesy and manners are not outmoded concepts. They are the lubricant that keeps the wheels of society turning smoothly.
Politeness is alive and reasonably well in Greater Victoria. Friends visiting from afar have remarked on friendly, courteous treatment here. People may complain about the region’s traffic and bad drivers, but they are spoiled — this is still a place where you can signal for a lane change, and someone will drop back to let you in.
People hold doors open, say “excuse me” when they walk in front of you, are quick to say “please” and “thank you.”
Sure, there are rude exceptions, but generally, we have a pleasingly polite society here.
Except for those pesky phones.
Couples sit side by side in deep conversation, not with each other, but with people on the other end of the digital connection. People text in movies, at restaurants, in classes, in church, even.
What makes any reasonable human being think that it’s OK to send and read texts on your phone while talking to someone else? Never mind the message on the phone, the more obvious message being sent is: “You are insignificant — you come second to anything that pops up on this little screen.”
Sending or receiving text messages during a business meeting says that something is more important than the focus of the meeting.
That not only violates rules of polite conduct, it erodes the effectiveness of meetings. For that reason, no-texting rules are becoming standard for such meetings.
Smartphones are valuable tools, and communication has never been so convenient, but these electronic servants have become the masters. It’s not about convenience, it’s about an addiction — just like overeating, compulsive shopping and gambling — that interferes with healthy conversation and personal interaction.
We need to bring courtesy back into social discourse. Perhaps there’s an app for that.
