Audience members [at a recent conference] — mostly professors — sat heads down, eyes trained on smartphones, tablets and laptops. At the front of the room, panel members tweeted, checked messages from the audience, and followed the conference Twitter stream. It was hard to tell whether anyone was paying attention… We once knew and accepted the unwritten standards of etiquette: When a speaker spoke, we paid attention. We may have taken notes, but we listened respectfully, eyes forward. Being present and attentive was simple courtesy.
December 15th, 2011 at 11:52AM
An acquaintance of mine surmised that his committee members were sending text messages to each other during his qualifying exam. This was later confirmed by one of the guilty parties (making his admission without hesitation.)
Surely the texts dealt with matters germane…?
Er, no, rather mundane…
The student passed and although he felt a bit disrespected by his committee members having divided attentions, he didn’t feel short-changed. The faculty didn’t ‘phone it in’ that day, their questions were incisive.