At dinner tonight I sat next to three guys I just met, all about my age and every one of them was working their cell phone almost the entire time. Now, granted, I am at a convention full of scientists so these folks tend to stay connected. But this wasn’t technical information or model runs or dropsonde data they were getting, they were chatting it up like a bunch of high school girls. I even said that at one point. They chuckled until distracted by a phone bleep or red flashing light.
I am not a person to make an observation like that since I am generally the most guilty. I have done a bunch of posts from here and have stayed in touch with family and friends. I have worked my phone like a bandit pushing the battery to the last couple pixels a few days.
But I think there is a point where it is just annoying. I saw this several times during presentations, a good percentage of heads tilted down into dim LED light. I think you need to concentrate when someone is talking about differential equations and Sea Surface Temperature soundings being integrated into the WRF model matrix (I am not kidding about that topic). If someone is trying to make you LOL simultaneously then I think you could miss a key point. But, OK, these things can be a bit dry so maybe I will let it go.
But during dinner, putting a fork down (or in some cases not) to text the whole time? I think for that hour or two you might be able to take a break.
Interestingly, I think 10 years ago someone would have said something at the NWA conference about the faux pas, but with the media hurting so badly many are advocating being online all the time so it goes down as accepted. There are no rules in the Wild West even at stuffy technical conferences apparently.
(No, I didn’t post this particular blog from my phone…in case you are curious…however I did do several others that way this week. I am a hypocrite)
