#technology etiquette

"When's the last time you sent a thank you note? When you sat down, actually hand wrote it and popped it in the mail? Chances are it's been a while." 

              While browsing my twitter feed, I saw an interesting post from a Lehigh University account about an article based on a professor interview entitled "Has the digital era killed our sense of etiquette?" I was immediately interested since much of what I have been writing applies to social media and changing behaviors with technology. In the article, Lehigh professor Jeremy Littau describes the emerging divide between generations that grew up without certain technologies compared to the newer generations who only know communicating with technology.

            While on a long drive this past weekend, my sister and I discussed this and how we believe that people just a few years younger have different interpretations of communicating with technology from us. My sister strongly believes that those about the age of sophomores in college are even more dependent on cell phones and have no problem with this usage in formal environments. However, older generations may interpret cell phone usage in front of them to be especially rude and I believe this is because they do not fully understand these technological capabilities and feel left out.

            Regardless of age and where you fall in these generations, I do believe there needs to be greater awareness of a technological and perhaps social media etiquette. Littau is quoted in the article as saying:

  "I think we make the mistake of thinking the Internet is this thing that we live in and it's actually a tool we use, it's a tool that we use to communicate."