Of course, as we now know, most Walkman users opted for solitary use -- and loved it. But the dynamic that critics then grumbled about -- people off in their own little worlds, even while in public -- remains unresolved. In fact, it's become harder to navigate after, with cells and PDAs, those "little worlds" became social spheres.
All of this means much more negotiating -- and misunderstanding. Take my friend Jennifer and her husband Bryan. They've agreed that, whenever he whips out his BlackBerry during what's supposed to be their private time, she can fine him $5. The rule, she says, was instilled a few months ago, when he started e-mailing someone at work during the middle of one of their conversations. It's come up often since. Eight months pregnant, she found one occasion, at the obstetrician's office, particularly galling.
"I was gushing emotionally about our healthy little baby inside" when he took out his BlackBerry, she told me.
Bryan is nothing like Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man, the Cingular ad campaign character known for using his cell during a trial, a support group meeting, even his own wedding. (Though, judging by the character's popularity, there are many ICPMs out there. He's grown into a hit, even making the "Today" show last week.)
But where Jennifer sees his e-mailing as abandonment of the real (her) for the virtual, Bryan sees it as being present for both, "the same thing as reading a magazine" -- which is what Jennifer was doing. Plus, he adds: "If it's work hours, I need to be connected to work."
It turns out that Bryan is dealing with some serious social pressures to communicate -- and not just with Jennifer. In 2000, a survey by the management consulting and technology services company Accenture found that, of American workers who had taken at least a week-long vacation that year, 83 percent said they had brought mobile technology along. Of those who used it to keep in contact with the office, more than half began the interaction themselves. (All these numbers would surely be higher now, since the post-PDA craze.)
When HR, the magazine of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), explored why anyone would do such a thing, one of the answers that came back was: out of consideration for other workers. With many companies running whippet-thin, people are more conscious than ever that, while they're away, someone else has to do their job. The vacationers want to help out. And they're often expected to. As one tech geek tells me, "The boss knows I have access to e-mail all the time, I'm gonna look like a slacker if I'm not taking a peek at least every now and then, even during my off-hours."
(For those wondering, the number of respondents who admitted to checking in for questionable emotional reasons was small: Only 7 percent said they'd done it because "it felt good to be needed.")
E-mailing-while-traveling is also part of another American obsession: multi-tasking. Which brings us back to people in the services industry who are talking on the phone, while ignoring you.
Imagine this: You serve streams of people every day. And, increasingly every day, the customers ignore you, because they're on their cell phones. So you buy one and use it at work because -- well, they're on the phone, aren't they?
It happened to cab drivers. First, riders stopped "seeing" them by deciding the backseat could be used as a private phone booth; then, so ignored, the drivers got on the horn themselves, removing anything but the barest function of getting riders from Point A to Point B.
Now imagine all the people who deal with distracted customers every day, finding themselves asking questions several times because the customer is on the cell or wearing those little white iPod buds. We've all seen pictures of power brokers on the phone while getting a manicure or a haircut. Why not me? the stylist must think. And white-collar workers aren't any better behaved: In a survey last year, SHRM found that more than 40 percent of HR professionals contacted randomly said that they had a policy regulating cell phone use on the job. Another 12 percent said they planned to have a policy in place within six months.
