Tag: ETIQUETTE

Besides siring a ridiculous amount of children, Brad Pitt and Jon Gosselin now have something else in common: Bluetooth headsets. However, unlike Gosselin, who can pretty much never look cool, Pitt dons his on the cover of Wired Magazine's August issue, promoting his gory war-flick 'Inglourious Basterds.' Inside the magazine, People.com reports that Pitt gives advice on tech-etiquette and work ...

You may soon find a new booklet in the pocket of your coach airline seat explaining proper airplane netiquette. On all AirTran Airways flights, alongside your SkyMall catalog and that pamphlet that illustrates how to survive the least traumatic plane crash possible, you'll now find useful tidbits like: "14B is not your office. It's an airline seat. Treat it as such," and "The lavatory is not ...

In the age of texting, Twittering, e-mailing, and Simul-Tubing, the art of the hand-written message has suffered. Jen Burke Anderson of the San Francisco Chronicle finds herself wondering, is sending handwritten thank you notes passe in the digital age? It's been common practice for a long, long time to send handwritten thank you notes to your wedding guests, to friends who let you crash on their ...

Rude cell phone behavior is a familiar nuisance to everyone. We've all been annoyed at some point by a person talking loudly in public, or swerving across the highway as they hammer out a text message. Polling firm Harris Interactive recently conducted an Intel-commissioned tech-etiquette survey of 2,160 U.S. adults. The resulting statistics are interesting, predictable, and frustrating. As ...

Ever check a text message or take a phone call at the dinner table? Maybe sneak a glance at that e-mail which just set your BlackBerry abuzz? Shame on you, says Dr. Cindy Post Senning in a recent New York Times article. Author of the new "Emily Post's Table Manners for Kids," Dr. Post Senning admonishes any sort of gadget use at the dinner table. She reminds us: "The family meal is a social event, ...

On the list of stupid things to post to Facebook, photos from a murder scene have to be right up there at the top. Apparently, this never occurred to Mark Musarella, a now-former emergency medical technician (EMT) at Richmond University Medical Center in Staten Island, New York. While on EMT duty on March 30, the 46-year-old retired police officer was called to a murder in the West Brighton ...

Some of the world's greatest and most respected writers celebrated the inspiration they received from the bottle. But let's face it, alcohol doesn't turn us all into Hunter S. Thompsons or Ernest Hemingways, despite what we may think at the time. In today's world of instant communication and stored messages, a little too much liquid courage sometimes results in massive failure. Thankfully, ...

We hit the streets of Miami Beach recently with our cameras to find the answer to a question we've been debating furiously around here at Switched headquarters -- is it rude to talk on your cellphone in a public restroom? What about talking on your phone while waiting in line? What do you think? Next >> '25 Rules of Tech Etiquette' ...

Human decency would demand that you not use text messaging for sensitive exchanges like breaking up with someone or terminating an employee. It should go without saying that suicide notes fall squarely in the realm of things too important to share via SMS. Sadly, a British man didn't seem to care too much about texting etiquette when he used his handset to send a suicide note to his wife, ...

Whether it's the colleague who CC's you on irrelevant e-mails or the stranger who makes loud, public phone calls, many people are downright rude in their gadget use and online behavior. You may not agree with all of them, but we've compiled 16 common tech no-nos, along with ways to avoid them in the future. Read on, because a little more respect and politeness never hurt anyone, right? Next ...

Netizens, when will you learn to be more careful about what you post online? We've published enough stories about Facebook and other social networking sites costing people jobs and relationships -- why would you be so careless with Twitter? A Twitter user known as 'theconnor' -- who's clearly about as sharp as a bowling ball -- posted a message that read, "Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have ...

In the past, we've discussed the evolution of tech etiquette, being sure to address the frontier of Facebook politesse. After reading a recent op-ed piece on Slate.com, though, we've had one particularly prickly Facebook phenomenon on our minds: tagging pictures. Facebook user and Slate contributor Brian Braiker asserts that he is not what he calls a "digital native," one of those who have ...

One of the newest weapons in the arsenal of stalkers is text messaging. Texting has two major perks for those hell-bent on harassment: the constant attachment folks have to their cell phones and the tendency of handsets to pester their owners until unopened messages are viewed. These aspects make harassment via text message particularly difficult to ignore or escape. So-called "textual ...

Remember how embarrassed you were that time you were at the Cineplex and your cell phone went off during the makeout scene in 'Brokeback Mountain?' Well, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has you beat, pants down: During his opening speech at the World Economic Forum last week, he was suddenly interrupted by his own mobile phone. "I'm afraid that's my phone", the prime minister abashedly ...

The plight of the unemployed is front page news in this country, and with good reason. Millions of people have lost their jobs and and are now facing a very uncertain future. What hasn't been discussed (at least not by us) are the people doing the firing. Laying off an employee cannot be easy in the first place (unless the person doing it is a sociopath/sadist). And with the line between ...