Smart phones are once again the talk at the water cooler as co-workers chat up the recently-launched iPhone 4's features (and bugs) and compare notes on the latest in smart phone technology – from Android to Blackberry to iPhone and beyond. According to a recent ComScore study, over 45 million people in the U.S. own smart phones, the largest-growing segment of the 234 million-strong U.S. mobile phone market.
Now that mobile phone technology has advanced to the stage that people are carrying small, hand-held computers around with them on a day-to-day basis, the culture is definitely changing. From impacting e-mail habits to altering the way our brain processes information to changing the intrapersonal communication styles of a generation, mobile technology plays an important role in the digital age.
So this month, we want to know how smart phones affect etiquette in the workplace. Let us know your thoughts by voting in the poll below:
The advent of smartphone has definitely had a huge impact on workplace behavior. It's a little bit tough for me to answer the question "appropriate" vs. "irresponsible".
Much of the behavior I see in the office violates company policy, however I don't know if I would go so far as to call that inappropriate.
Most people can't put their smart-phones down,, giving credence to the term "crackberry". Regardless of whether this jives with company policy or not, I think it's just a reality of our times, and I think that trying to stop such behavior with a policy is going to be about as effective as prohibition was at stopping alcohol use.
Posted by: DC Jobs | July 01, 2010 at 06:58 AM
I think that smartphones have had a general impact on any type of social behavior! I can't stand when I am talking to someone and they are on their phone...or when you're having dinner out and someone has their phone on the table. There's a time for smart phone usage...and it's not 24 hours a day...sometimes technology is a burden on real-life relationships.
Posted by: Zoe | July 05, 2010 at 09:37 AM