Phones...

I was thinking about etiquette last night, so when there was a blog post in my google reader titled "It's Not Just Rude, It's Ruining Your Brain," I got all excited. Alas, it was not about "please" and "thank you" and proper addressing of e-mails, it was about smart phones and students who have them out in class or while socializing.

This is the way kids these days think. My administration calls it "the millennial student" and apparently we are supposed to cater to their habits. ... [but] multitaskers are not only bad at multitasking, but they are also worse than nonmultitaskers on every individual one of the tasks.

That's the millennial student and it isn't something to be catered to. Put the damn iPhone down before you make yourself stupid.

While I love the quote "put the damn iPhone down before you make yourself stupid," and wanted it on my blog, I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I hate being on my phone when I'm trying to do something else - if someone texts me while I'm in serious homework mode, I will literally throw my phone across the room rather than check it. (Ask my roommate.) On the other hand, it took me 15 minutes to start this blog post because I had to read other things, watch a YouTube video, play a game and a half of Solitaire, and help someone who came into the office. So, uh, guilty.

In a less harsh post also about etiquette, Jennifer Grayson talks about how giving up her Blackberry for a year helped her to appreciate flowers and trees and stuff. Kind of corny, but related and also kind of sweet. But when I'm locked in a windowless basement office or at my desk in my dorm, there are no flowers to enjoy instead of technology, and the green background of the solitaire game or the pictures of flowers on my phone background are kind of like nature.

I'm not sure if I had a point with all this. Just something I'm thinking about this morning. I'm going back to playing solitaire now.