I’m far from being a techo-geek, however you view that – positive or negative. I don’t have a smart phone or any i-gadgets, nor do I have much desire to own these…although I’m getting to be more curious. I do love e-mail and can browse the internet without any issue, but downloading programs or solving problems makes me anxious. I know all too well that my elementary aged children are going advance beyond my abilities on the computer all too soon.

But I do know about etiquette, even if involved with the electronic kind. 

I grew up hand-writing prompt thank you notes after being given a gift. I took care in my written correspondence to use grammar correctly and to choose my words wisely. This carries over to my electronic correspondence, but not everyone complies. For many, including the children who are growing up solely in the electronic world, I personally think there should be some “old lessons” to learn and guidelines to follow. Even an adult or two could benefit from a reminder.

*You can’t “hear” e-mail. Know that if it can be interpreted in an unintended way, it probably will be. Read it to yourself – out loud, if necessary — to make sure that you’re relaying the message you want to. 

*If I send a message to you, please don’t respond by copying somebody else, too. If I wanted that other person to read my message, I would have sent it myself. It’ll make me wary of writing you in the future.

*Before hitting “send” – be it on your e-mail or phone – make sure it’s going where you wanted it to. I made an unforgivable “oops” by sending a text accidentally to the one person who wasn’t supposed to read it. Lesson to self – don’t write it in the first place, especially if it was a trigger-response. Or at the very least, make sure you know where the message is going. Thankfully, my friend was forgiving.

*Take care! When writing something – anything – show an effort. There’s nothing I find more annoying than a bunch of typos, misspellings, or grammar issues when someone sends me a message. It just shows me someone too rushed to take the time to proof what they wrote. For goodness sakes, spell check is a no brainer, and these days it comes with a grammar check as well. Use it.

*STOP YELLING AT ME!!! Over-using the bold feature can also come across as threatening.

*Emoticons? I’m guilty of the smiley face. Some people also use the frown face, the wink, the surprised face and even animated emoticons these days. Wink, wink, nod, nod…overkill?

*Text abbreviations are fine, although with all the smart phone usage you really shouldn’t need to use all the cutesy shortcuts out there. Showing my age – or ignorance – I have to Google a lot of them when they come through on my phone. My pre-pre-teen daughter feels it’s her right to have such a secret language. But I digress. Abbreviations are acceptable; laziness is not. Think of your message, your venue, and your audience.

This is far from a complete list of tech indiscretions; they are just a few of my personal pet peeves. Feel free to add to the list!
 

Personally, I don’t use my phone for anything while driving in the USA (I’m not licensed to drive in China and don’t own a car), but there are times when I am in a vehicle where the driver is using a mobile device. It doesn’t seem like a big deal to make a call or answer a simple text message, but there have been plenty of studies demonstrating that even talking on a mobile device impairs driving ability. Looking away from the road to tap out a message on a phone or read a text is simply irresponsible and potentially life threatening.

In an effort to raise awareness to the hazards of texting while driving, AT&T made a ten-minute documentary titled “The Last Text” about how the lives of four teenagers were forever altered by a few simple words in a text. It also highlights the cost of those text messages on the lives of friends, family and even complete strangers. It is worth watching and even more worthwhile watching with your older children and discussing it as a family. You can view the documentary video on YouTube here and visit the AT&T website here to learn more about the safety campaign.

When I was growing up as a kid, I always wore my seatbelt, but it took years of prodding my father to get him to do the same. If you text or make phone calls while driving, I hope you will consider this my prod to ask you to stop doing it. Whatever it is, it can wait until you pull over. As this video shows, the risks are far greater than we imagine. Now I just need to iron out my next Chinese lesson – how to get cab drivers to put away their phones.