A tipping point in mobile phone etiquette?

Interesting idea in a New York Times Bits blog interview with the woman behind the I Forgot My Phone video:

Ms. deGuzman’s video may have landed at one of those cultural moments when people start questioning if something has gone too far and start doing something about it.

Last week, the Unsound music festival in Poland banned fans from recording the event, saying it did not want “instant documentation” and distractions that might take away from the performances. In April, during a show in New York City, Karen O, the lead singer of the rock band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, told audience members to put away their phones (using an expletive to emphasize her point).

(Worth watching the video, if you aren’t familiar with it)

There’s historical precedent for this:

In the late 1950s, televisions started to move into the kitchen from the living room, often wheeled up to the dinner table to join the family for supper. And then, TV at the dinner table suddenly became bad manners. Back to the living room the TV went.

As ever people rush to blame tech for ruining some aspect of our lives. The tech has no will, no agenda. It’s us – and the fact that it takes us time to adapt to new tools that creates the problem.