Aussies turn 'faux-pas' into 'phone-pas' folly

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 14 June 2011 13:04

Your IT - Mobility

Just because you own a mobile phone doesn't mean that you can ignore social courtesies, with good iManners seemingly having gone to the wayside in Telstra's new 'State of the Nation' research.

If there's one thing Telstra loves to do, it is to engage Pure Profile in some survey research to uncover interesting things about the way Aussies live their iLives.

Someone at Pure Profile must have a profile that's purely Telstra cash, but hey, capitalism is good, and good on Pure Profile for building a business that Telstra is happy to hire.

So, what did Telstra engage Pure Profile to do this time? It engaged the company in purely profiling 1023 Australians between the ages of 18 and 65, in metro and regional areas during the month of May, 2011, in a report called 'State of the Nation' to gauge the iReactions of Aussies owning smartphones and tablets to the manners - or lack of manners shown - when using the latest iGadgetry.

It turns out that Aussies are forgetting their manners and are 'using their mobile phones inappropriately', yet while 'four out of five Australians believe we're getting ruder, less than half would call someone to heel on their bad behaviour'.

It looks like those not on their phones are not calling out the bad behaviour of those who are behaving badly while using their smartphones.

Rebekah O'Flaherty, Telstra's Executive Director of its Consumer division stated the research 'showed that while traditional gripes such as talking loudly on public transport or using a mobile while driving still topped the list, smartphones were encouraging a new wave of behaviour.'

Ms O'Flaherty specifically O'stated that: 'More than one third of the mobiles we sell are smartphones and Facebook use on mobiles has tripled in the past year, so it's not surprising some of us aren't sure if it's acceptable to check-in friends on Facebook during lunch or show-off their latest apps over the dinner table.

'It's clear modern technology with instant, one-click access to social networking and email had transformed the way Australians live, which is why we need a new set of etiquette rules to help turn around mobile misbehaviour,' she said.

Indeed, I remember seeing a very recent 'Ask Bossy' article on News.com.au where a young man was lamenting the fact his girlfriend was glued to her iPhone and Facebook, to the point where the relationship was falling apart, to the complete and utter obliviousness of the young lady.

In that instance, is it fair to blame the mobile phone, or the ADD-encouraging nature of the black-hole vortex that is Facebook?

You'll have to make your own decision on that one, although if you do spend a lot of time looking at Facebook or other social networking updates on your phone, no matter when and/or where you are, you may well be committing a seriously rude case of 'Phone-Pas'.

So, what are Telstra's recommendations on avoiding the poor mobile etiquette that is 'Phone-Pas'? Please read on to page two!