Tag: smartphone etiquette

In the city of Madurai, India, Christian churches are trying to stop smartphone use during service.

Churches throughout the city of Madurai, India, have had enough of the intrusion from mobile technology during their services and have started to crack down on the use of those devices on their premises.

Advisories have been issued against texting and against using messaging apps during service.

Some of the priests have said that they have been trying to decide whether or not they should be addressing individual parishioners who have continued to use mobile technology devices while they are in church. They have found that the practice of texting and the use of the WhatsApp mobile app have been especially problematic and intrusive during their services.

Mobile technology has been interrupting prayer services on a more regular basis, distracting the peace.

Ringtones for incoming messages and calls are sometimes embarrassing for the mobile device owner, but they are certainly distracting and frustrating to the entire congregation, as they are occurring more regularly in the middle of prayer. The majority of churchgoers do carry their smartphones to church with them, but the clergy in Madurai is trying very hard to make it clear that the devices need to be silent and unused throughout a prayer service. The sound of a smartphone or the sight of its use is considered to be quite intrusive.

The clergy is asking that the members of churches please follow what the majority have been doing and shut off their phones or switch them to silent mode. Should an emergency call come in – through a vibrating alert, not a ringtone – they want members to step out of the room in order to take it.

According to Father Jerone Simon of the Claretian Missionaries, who is a regular celebrant of mass at Ellis Nagar and Bastin Nagar churches, “When mobile phones came in first and smart phones later, it was tough time to control this intrusion. There have been instances when we had to tell the members getting calls to put their phones on the silent mode. But things are working out slowly.”

Signage and placards are being hung in some churches, such as St. Mary’s Cathedrial, in order to prevent the use of mobile technology and remind parishioners to silence their devices when they enter. Unfortunately, until now, that has not managed to reach everybody, quite yet.

Socially acceptable ways of using smartphones have been the focus of many studies and discussions lately.

Due to the exceptionally rapid adoption of mobile technology, there hasn’t been much of an opportunity for a standard of polite use to have naturally developed in the majority of countries, but in Korea – as with many other social issues – the government has taken it upon itself to create its own set of rules with regards to smartphone etiquette.

Etiquette while using these devices – which function in nearly every public place – is typically considered an important issue.

In North Korea, there are nearly 2.5 million people (representing about 10 percent of the total population of the country) that subscribe to the wireless services of the country’s carrier, Koryolink, which was first established in 2008. This number has stayed quite low when compared to the majority of the rest of the world as a result of the prohibitively expensive prices of mobile technology devices in the country. A BBC News story that ran last year reported that the average annual salary in the country is under $1,000, and handsets are being sold for a few hundred dollars at Koryolink.

Still, mobile technology is seen by the government as a growing trend, and they have decided to step into its use.

A cultural magazine from North Korea was obtained by a news agency in South Korea, called Yonhap, which reported that the government sees smartphones as a rising trend and has now issued a range of etiquette lessons with regards to answering and placing calls on these devices while in public. All of North Korea’s official media is controlled by its government’s regime.

The translation provided by Yonhap stated that the etiquette lesson for mobile technology device use in public instructed that “Speaking loudly or arguing over the phone in public places where many people are gathered is thoughtless and impolite behavior.” It underscored the point that the increase in use of smartphones in today’s society has brought about a trend in which proper phone etiquette is being neglected by some people.

The article went on to provide a number of other instructions, including to highlight the importance of polite and appropriate greetings when using mobile technology, which they say is different from the use of landlines. For example, it stated that the device user may or may not have a caller ID function and, therefore, “one must not neglect to introduce oneself or offer greetings.”