Mobile communications have made life much easier, saving a huge amount of time and effort, and at the same time complicated it. “How?” you ask. Well, how…
Remember, when was the last time you had to deal with mobile spam? Or listen to someone else's private conversation in public transport? Or, while relaxing in the forest, listen to unpleasant music from someone's portable speaker? Are such situations familiar to you? Or maybe you yourself became the cause of them?
We could blame everything on the younger generation if they were the only ones behaving this way. But more and more often we see grandparents blasting music from their mobile phones while walking with their grandchildren, and grown-up, established, influential people conducting business negotiations on a loudspeaker in the foyer of a theater…
The “mobile apocalypse” has led to the fact that loud extraneous conversations of strangers, cold spam calls from telemarketers and other “mobile trash” are perceived today quite calmly, but in vain… After all, by accepting the situation “as it is”, we kind of agree with these “norms” established by no one knows who and do not leave ourselves the opportunity to change the current state of affairs. Have you ever met respectable men negotiating via speakerphone in a public place?
In some developed countries, the rules of etiquette when using phones are broadcast to the public by mobile operators and manufacturers in the form of advertising. In the meantime, while this wonderful trend has not yet reached us, let's try to fix the situation ourselves by studying the rules of the latest etiquette regarding mobile communications and starting to follow them:
1. Do not make or receive calls in public places or on public transport. If you do need to make a call or answer an urgent call, go to a more secluded place, speak in a low voice, briefly and to the point.
2. Choose calm and neutral ringtones.
3. Turn off the keypress sound.
4. Turn on the answering machine when you come to a formal event, cinema, theatre, museum, gallery, philharmonic. In this situation, the answering machine is more convenient than the silent mode, since the people calling you, instead of wasting time on repeated calls, can immediately leave a message.
5. Mobile contacts of your friends and acquaintances can be transferred to third parties only with the consent of the first.
6. Acceptable calling time is from 8 am to 10 pm.
7. Calling back an unknown missed number is unnecessary and sometimes even unsafe.
8. If the situation allows, it is preferable to write a message in a free messenger than to call, since it is often more convenient for a person to respond to a message in a messenger than to a call (the exception is communication with loved ones, as well as elderly people).
9. Don’t leave your personal phone at your workplace: calls coming to it can be annoying and distract your colleagues from work.
10. It is advisable to never use your personal phone number at work (sometimes employees make this mistake, wanting to make contact with the best clients as convenient as possible; as a result, they have to take work calls on weekends, during vacations, and sometimes even after leaving work). Such behavior blurs the boundaries of business communication.
11. When making a business call, do not ask your interlocutor if he has a minute, 5 minutes, or if it is convenient for him to talk: this only confuses the interlocutor and wastes time (maybe in order to solve a certain issue, the person is ready to be distracted from current important matters; and he does not have the opportunity to discuss other nuances at the moment). If the person does not have a minute to talk, he will most likely not answer your call; it is better to be as laconic as possible in stating the essence of the matter and specific in your question.
12. If you yourself find yourself in a situation where you don’t have time to answer a call, you have two acceptable options:
Don't answer and call back later. If your boss or someone from higher management is calling, this option is preferable. After answering, immediately inform the person you are unable to talk (and specify a time when you can call back).
Under no circumstances should you answer and listen to your interlocutor's question only to say in response that you are not comfortable talking now. (If you are not comfortable talking, don't say it! But to answer and listen to the question and then cut off the conversation is impolite.)
13. Using music instead of a dial tone is quite controversial, especially in a business environment; and using prank dial tones is completely unacceptable. Before you set a melody instead of a dial tone, think about how appropriate it will be if a business partner, employer, job seeker, mother of your student, father of your girlfriend calls you.
14. Even if you are expecting an important call, it is impolite to put your phone on the table (sometimes the only exception may be your workplace, as well as noisy establishments).
15. If a call is interrupted, the person who called calls back.
16. A call that continues after 5 rings, as well as a repeated call after one previously unanswered call, is considered intrusive (if you are not answered, calling again is permissible after two hours).
17. It is appropriate to switch to the second line only if the incoming call from the second line is extremely important, and always after apologizing to the other person.
18. When in a company, try not to be distracted by calls and messages on your mobile phone, unless absolutely necessary.
19. Use a strong password; if your phone is stolen or lost, lock it remotely (to do this, you need to enable the remote control function on it in advance): this will protect not only yourself, but also people from your contact list from possible actions by intruders.
20. If you find someone else's lost phone, do not turn it off under any circumstances. Find “mom”, “dad”, “sister” in your contact list and call to report the find. This way you will help the owner of the phone get it back faster. Remember: it is illegal to demand a reward for a found phone.
21. Talking on loudspeaker is not acceptable in society. The exception is when the situation requires such a conversation (for example, business negotiations in the office).
22. If you like watching videos or listening to music, always use headphones in public places; at the same time, make sure that you can hear everything that is happening around you: you may be approached with a request or a question, not to mention emergency situations.
23. Portable speakers may only be used where your music will not disturb other people, namely: at home; rarely – at a picnic or in the country (but only on condition that no one except you and your company can hear your music or radio). Using portable speakers in transport and public places is a rude invasion of someone else's personal space!
In any unclear situation, the right decision will be prompted by common sense and the universal principles of politeness: “do not irritate, do not distract, do not involve, do not harm.”
Communication via mobile phone is an integral part of our lives, and it is in our power to make this communication as comfortable as possible not only for ourselves, but also for those around us.
“There is no point in following any rules of conduct when everyone around you is breaking them!” you will say and you will be wrong. It depends on you, and only on you, whether you will, by your example, broadcast correct behavior to others, or merge with the crowd, thereby aggravating an already difficult situation. After all, perhaps it is thanks to you and your efforts that in a few years we will live in a beautiful and comfortable world in which people have realized the value of respect for each other!
