P
That’s hardly unusual nowadays, except that “it wasn’t the most … um … family-friendly movie,” says Shankman, head of New York-based travel-service company AirTroductions. “I didn’t care so much, but I could only wonder if he’d do the same thing if he was sitting next to a 5-year-old.”
Shankman isn’t the first traveler to run into a glaring breach of “tech etiquette” – when portable technology is used in a manner that is potentially bothersome or offensive.
This, according to seasoned fliers, is a growing concern in airplane cabins along with airport terminals, commuter trains, wireless coffeeshops and hotels frequented by travelers. As digital devices – ranging from laptops and game gizmos to cell phones and multimedia players – become ubiquitous, they also can become disruptive.
Such gadgets raise privacy concerns, too. Laptop-using fliers often find it difficult to shield sensitive information on their screens from prying eyes. Even if they’re just watching DVDs or playing games, involuntarily sharing their activities with the morbidly curious can be annoying.
This has fueled demand for products such as Notebook Privacy Filters, sold by 3M and featured in a TV commercial depicting a hapless laptop user flanked by super-nosy seatmates. The filters have been out for more than two years, but sales have soared in recent months, partly due to the spot, says marketing manager Robyn Strauss.
“So many people are using notebooks outside of the office” lately, Strauss said, and privacy isn’t their sole concern. “A lot of (them) are doing shopping and banking, so there’s the potential for identity theft,” as well.
Dianne Daniels could have used such a PC filter on a flight to Charlotte, N.C., as she went over notes for a business presentation. She noticed at one point that a man beside her was reading right off her laptop screen.
“How did I know this?” says Daniels, head of a Connecticut business-consulting firm. “I could see his lips moving. At one point, he screwed up his courage and asked me what I did for a living. I closed my notes and took out a novel.”
Diane Danielson of Massachusetts says she will never “work on anything proprietary or private on an airplane – you never know who might be sitting next to you, and there is no possible way to expect privacy.”
In fact, she says, a lack of privacy can work to her advantage.
“I’ve met many people who are interested in what I was working on and built business relationships based on their curiosity, either about my work or my technology,” says Danielson, who runs a businesswoman-networking group based near Boston.
Danielson finds “electronic games, etc., on planes less invasive of your personal space than those individuals who put their seat backs as far back as they go! I picked a new laptop with a shorter screen for airplane rides, just to deal with the “deep recliners.”‘
Some travelers object to having other fliers’ business foisted on them.
Bobbi Henson was once en route to Dallas as “the woman next to me had her laptop out, working on some kind of human resources presentation. The man in the seat behind her evidently was a co-worker, and he spent (most) of the four-hour flight leaning over from behind, giving her advice.
“What was annoying to me was their continual overuse of corporate-speak buzzwords, which sorely tempted me to butt in and give them advice on how to clean up the preso by translating it into the English language,” says Henson, media-relations manager for a wireless-phone service provider.
Headphones are a must when using noise-emitting gadgets of all kinds, tech-savvy travelers stress. “My 5-year-old son has a Leapster (educational gaming device) and knows to wear the headphones on airplanes,” Danielson noted. “I think our seatmates are quite happy that he’s engaged in a video game for the duration.”
Shankman says, “The kids playing their PlayStation Portables or Game Boys without headphones … grr … makes you want to put the kids in baggage.”
Even the glow of a laptop or movie-player screen might annoy a fellow traveler, as a St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press writer recently discovered on a transcontinental flight.
“I set my DVD player on my tray table and started watching episodes of “Family Guy’ during the flight,” said the reporter in an anecdote that inspired this article. “I noticed the person next to me getting closer and closer to her book, and it seemed as if the flashing visuals of my screen were distracting her from her reading. I realized I hadn’t asked her if it was OK for me to watch my DVD player. Was I supposed to ask her?”
Shankman will sometimes plug a double-port earphone adapter into his laptop and invite the person next to him to jack in for DVD time. “It’s sort of a karmic balance,” he says. “It says, “I don’t have to talk to you, nor do I want to. In exchange for leaving me alone, I’ll let you watch the latest movie with me. But keep quiet.”‘
But be careful which DVD you choose to share, Shankman says. “The first episode of “Lost’? Not what you want to watch on a plane. That went over really well” with a woman who recently watched it with him. “We just looked each other with nervous laughs.”
Sometimes, a bit of headphone-less gadget noise on a plane can be a good thing.
Pauline Winick, co-founder of a Florida-based business-etiquette consulting firm, recently found herself alongside “a nice young couple who each had a DVD player. I invited them to turn the sound on as loudly as possible. You see, (a nearby seat) was taken by a man who snored unbelievably loudly, from the time it was wheels up until we landed.
“Oh, and as soon as we touched down, (the man) used his cell phone to call family and friends,” Winick added. “Yikes!”
—
(c) 2006, St. Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.).
Visit the World Wide Web site of the Pioneer Press at http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
—–
TO SUBSCRIBE TO PLUGGED IN
Items in the Plugged In package are not included in your KRT News Service subscription. You can subscribe to the Plugged In package or purchase the items a la carte on KRT Direct at www.krtdirect.com. To subscribe, please call Rick DeChantal at Tribune Media Services at (800) 245-6536 or rdechantaltribune.com. Outside the United States, call Tribune Media Services International at +1-213-237-7987 or e-mail tmsitribune.com.
—
PHOTO (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099).
AP-NY-01-04-06 1459EST
Comments are no longer available on this story