Quite regularly now when I’m helping a colleague out or explaining something to them they take it as an opportunity to fiddle about with their mobile phone. Perhaps I’m boring, or taking it too fast, or taking it too slow or not making any sense but I’m taking the time to explain something to them because they’ve asked me to. One-on-one tuition is all about pacing and if you don’t get this right using quite a tight feedback loop (engagement) then you’re both wasting each other’s time. Also it’s just plain rude.
Now, presentations – well they can be a little different. They can go on for hours and are often impersonal, dull and deeply uninteresting. If the audience isn’t engaged then they are liable to drift off into smartphoneworld. I’m guilty of surfing or texting or Facebooking in presentations and to some extents this is taken as a bit of a joke but you’ve got to know how far to take this. It seems that the biggest abusers of this system who have the hardest time taking it when other people are doing it to them. As if to say “I can screw around in someone else’s presentation but obviously mine is really interesting and so you should pay attention”. Better to make an excuse and leave and get a cup of coffee rather than sitting there making it worse and also disrupting others.
There is a good article on Slashdot about how banks could be using mobile phone usage data to gain creditworthiness insights based on usage patterns. Similarly mobile phone data usage patterns could easily be farmed for engagement information in meetings, workgroups, seminars, expos etc. This even be used to work out who is actually working and who isn’t – and I’m sure within years with the current levels of privacy erosion it probably will be. Or it might even already be like that. You want a job? Sign up to our agreement on access to your usage data. Who knows?
For me it’s enough that you listen if we’re one on one and if we’re not you can daydream all you like.
