Minnesota State University Reporter

Issue date: 4/7/09 Section: Campus News

In today's world, new technologies are constantly being developed to update and advance society. This has led to a generation of technology freaks addicted to its Blackberries and afraid to be out of range of a Wi-Fi connection for fear of a day without Facebook.

"People start to think everyone has their phone attached to their hip," said Brian Wollum, program advisor for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center at Minnesota State. "People get annoyed if they send you a text message and you don't respond right away."

Laptops, Blackberries and cell phones can be useful tools for education and business, but their use brings about complications and questions when it comes to manners.

"I find it interesting that, here in libraryland, the etiquette books fall in between the religion and philosophy ones," said MSU librarian Kellian Clink, who calls manners "everyday ethics."

"I wonder what this generation thinks in terms of civility," Clink said. "Do students get annoyed at the same stuff that annoys me?"

Clink has worked at MSU for 21 years and seen the campus change as the years go by.

Students used to talk to one another when they walked down the hallways, she said. Now they talk on their cell phones.

Clink gets especially annoyed when students have loud phone conversations in the library.

"I remember one time a girl got into a 20-minute fight with her boyfriend," she said. "Everyone was staring at her but she never got it. I asked her if she wanted to finish her conversation outside but she didn't go."

People sometimes end up talking on their cell phones in unusual places. Graphic designer Ben Sweeney, for example, isn't surprised by people who whip out the phones in restrooms.

"I don't talk on my phone in the bathroom, but I really don't care if someone else does it," Sweeney said. "I don't go to the bathroom looking for quiet."

Still, Sweeney said he thinks the restroom is an inappropriate place for a phone conversation.

"If someone calls while I'm in the bathroom and it's urgent I would pick it up and say 'Call you back,'" he said. "I wouldn't sit there and tell them about my day."

Others, like law enforcement freshman Felicia Hyde, get annoyed when people talk on their phone while standing in line.

"I worked at Joann Fabrics and sometimes I didn't want to serve people if they were on their cell phones," Hyde said. "I think it's rude when people answer their phone when you're in the middle of a conversation."

Another new etiquette issue concerns appropriate times to text message.

"I think it's bad manners when I'm sitting and talking to someone and they take out their cell phone and start texting," said art history freshman Sobia Khan. "It makes me feel like I'm talking to a wall."

"It's less annoying and more rude," said elementary education junior Sarah Cook. "No one I know is that good at keeping up two conversations, so usually one of them doesn't end well and it's usually the one with the person you're talking to."

Phones can also have a negative effect on relationships.

"We rely on phones and texting to get in contact with people," Hyde said. "Really, we could write a letter or actually see the person but people feel more comfortable typing."

Hyde said people may end up telling others things they wouldn't say face-to-face and said to make sure to treat a person the same on the phone as one would in person.

Although students said they were annoyed by people texting others while in conversations, some admitted to doing it themselves. One such person is sports management freshman Jake Jelen, who says he does it once in a while.

"If you do it the whole time you might as well not be there," he said.

Wollum said text messaging and cell phones have had an effect on the way people interact.

"I think it would be interesting to see the effects of text messaging and social networking sites and how it shapes our communication skills," Wollum said. "We're so used to that comfort, that barrier now. Will this affect the way we hold conversations? Are people less apt to say 'Hi' to a stranger on the street?"

Clink thinks cell phones have made it more difficult for people to meet each other. She said most students she's known who have left MSU did so because they were lonely. That sense of isolation could have been caused by trying to stay constantly connected with old friends instead of making new ones.

English senior Nancy Goettl, a non-traditional student and mother of two, said another problem with technology is that it raises expectations and makes one seem always available.

"The biggest problem with technology is there's no opportunity to just be," she said. "Employers expect more of you and you can't have any alone time."

Wollum thinks new technologies, most notably social-networking sites, have made this generation more self-centered.

"Social-networking sites have capitalized on narcissism," he said. "We're our favorite topics, and now we have a medium to post on ourselves. Naturally, this is going to explode."

Wollum said social-networking sites could be dangerous and give people false perceptions of reality, but most will be OK if they don't let these sites consume them.

With our lives becoming more and more complicated by technology and other issues previous generations haven't dealt with, such as blended families with new traditions and two working parents, Clink remains bewildered by what etiquette is in the 21st century.

"I really wonder what people think," she said. "Is there any longer a standard set of agreed-upon behaviors? I don't have any answers, just questions."

Dannie Higginbotham is the Reporter assistant news editor

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