Some Random Girl: Stop Being Rude and Put Away Your Phone

Remember the good ol’ days, circa mid-naughts, when most people’s phones just alerted them of incoming calls and the occasional text message?

After a two-second peek, you knew that you were not in desperate demand, and you were free to slip your cell back into your pocket or purse (or cellphone holster, if you were a huge geek). You’d then go back to standing in line, taking in a raucous concert or attending your grandma Bunny’s funeral.

Now we’re more stupidly available, and a phone check involves, at minimum, viewing your e-mails, scanning Twitter mentions, perusing blog comments and stalking that dude’s Facebook wall.

Even if there’s nothing remarkable in any digi-venue, we keep tapping away — reading the latest headlines, checking the weather (often, bafflingly, while outside or near a window) or ordering the most darling collectible Hummel set from eBay. You know, the usual.

Last year, a study even hinted that fresh bits of info may hook into the brain’s reward system, shedding light on how whipping out your phone is analogous to that whiskey-and-taco bender you went on last weekend. (It just hurts so gooooood.)

The problem, of course, is that constantly perusing your phone is freaking rude — a clear signal that your reception is more important than anything going on in the here and now.

Get this: 10% of people 24 and younger think it’s OK to text during sex, according to consumer electronics shopping and review site Retrevo. That brings a whole meaning to the term multitasking.

But unless you’re among that ADD-addled 10%, there’s hope for you yet. May we suggest holsterin’ the old communication cannon during the following situations…

And so begins my Netiquette column — which I write with my Stuff Hipsters Hate co-blogger, Andrea Bartz — this week over at CNN.