Issues: Technology and Manners – Manners Change

This week on the Pine Needle three students consider the state of manners in our culture and consider the question, Is technology ushering in a new era of rudeness?

by: Eric Boal

Manners have changed a lot over time but the dilemma in that is that everyone has different views on what is rude and what is not rude. Back in the day many people believed that children should be seen and not heard and that’s the way that it was. Or that people did not speak unless they were spoken to; but now people have a lot more freedom and they can do and say what they want to. There are many people out there who believe that our smart phones have changed people into rude humans all around. But I don’t think that it is the phones that have changed us; it is just the fact that people have different views on what is rude. I think that people have just forgotten when it is appropriate to use their phones and when not to.

I think that most people need to just learn what they consider to be rude and what is not rude. My view is that I don’t mind what people are doing as long as it does not affect me and what I’m doing. To me a few things that are rude and inconsiderate are when people think that it is okay to talk on their phones when they are in a restaurant, or when they think that they need to be on it in an elevator, or when they need to talk on the phone in a movie theater, or anything like that. But many people think that it is just rude to be on the phone anytime. I think that people just get too caught up in the thought of it’s always inconsiderate instead of realizing all of the people around them that are using their phones are not being rude—for example, texting as they are sitting on a subway. I think that people need to realize exactly how helpful smart phones can be.

Smart phones help people every day, they help people do things that maybe they didn’t have enough time to do. Smart phones can do so many things that regular phones can’t do. Smart phones can almost do anything that someone can do with a regular computer. So I think that most people need to see how they can help us and realize that there are many people that know when and how to use their phones respectfully around them without being rude and disturbing them.