Okay. So the subject of the article "Smartphone Etiquette for the Classic Dinner Date" is whimsical, if not a tacky cheap shot. That said, I think the topic of how smart phones and social media interact with regular-old human contact is a valuable one. Just this weekend I was at a conference where people I met only once in a business setting were sending me friend requests on facebook (isn't this why LinkedIn was created?). It got me thinking of important it is to both understand how/when to use digital communications versus old-fashioned phone calls, personal emails, and other similarly archaic forms of communication.
At the root of the question, I think is the level of formality required of the communications. Digital communications tip the scales in terms of convenience, but in some forms of business it actually says more when there is a bit of inconvenience. Considering these dinner date tips along the line of a sales call, a lot of the similar notions hold true -- you want the person you are with to feel respected, to feel that they have your complete attention, and to feel that you are worth a bit of inconvenience (ie, you'll come to my door rather than text that you're downstairs).
In relationships and business, I want people to work for the convenience of being able to text me or friend me or mass email me. Maybe I'm a bit old-fashioned and this is just a generational factor. Will digital communications ever be able to feel "formal" in the traditional sense that there is value in the time it took the person to craft the communication? Is that already starting when you consider paperless post vs. evite?
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