The New York Times, December 2, 2011
Is talking to a phone the same as talking on it? The sound of someone gabbing on a cellphone is part of the soundtrack of daily life, and most (some) of us have learned when to be quiet — no talking in quiet cars, on trains, on buses, in restaurants, etc. But the etiquette of talking to a phone, more precisely to a virtual assistant, like Apple’s Siri, in the new iPhone 4S, has not yet evolved. Eavesdroppers are becoming annoyed.
“How is he doing question mark how are you doing question mark,” Jeremy Littau of Bethlehem, PA., found himself telling his new iPhone recently as he walked down the street, dictating a text message to his wife, who was home with their newborn. The machine spoke to him in Siri’s synthesized female voice. Passers-by gawked. “It’s not normal human behavior to have people having a conversation with a phone on the street,” concluded Mr. Littah, an assistant professor of journalism and communication at Lehigh University.
The technology behind voice activated mobile phones has been around for a few years, allowing people to order their phones around like digital factotums, commanding them to dictate text messages, make appointments on their calendars and search for nearby sushi restaurants. Apple has taken it to another level with Siri. Amtrak’s quiet car policy bans only phone calls, not banter with a virtual assistant. Cliff Cole, a spokesman for Amtrak, says, “We may have to adjust the language if it becomes a problem.
Voice-activated technology in smartphones has been around for a few years but Siri is a more sophisticated iteration of the technology. It responds to natural sounding phrases like, “What’s the weather looking like?” and “Wake me up at 8 a.m.” Apple gave Siri a dash of personality with the impression that the iPhone users are actually talking to someone. Ask Siri for the meaning of life, and it responds, “I find it odd you would ask this of an inanimate object.”
James Katz, director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers, said, “People who use their voices to control their phones are creating an inconvenience for others — noise rather than coping with an inconvenience for themselves — the discomfort of having to type slowly on a cramped cellphone keyboard. Mr. Katz compared the behavior with someone who leaves a car engine running while parked, creating noise and fumes for people surrounding them. Katz believes the initial irritation will fade and will largely be accepted by most people. But he predicted, “there will be a small minority of traditionalists who yearn for the good old days when people just texted in public.”
Comment: I think we still have a long way to go with people having “loud” conversations on a cell phone in public places. I put both conversation on a cell phone and talking with a virtual assistant, like Siri, in the same category. Consider others privacy and talk only where no one else can hear. I’m guilty of talking too loud (according to my wife) when using a cell phone, so I will try to be an example of discretion and change my ways.
By Roger Eigsti
Board President,
Institute for Business, Technology, and Ethics
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