Etiquette in the Digital Age

The digital age has created a host of new etiquette dilemmas reports the Times of India. What should you do when your boss sends a Facebook friend request? Is it OK to take and share smartphone pictures at a friend's wedding? When should you take off Google Glass, rather than just turn it off? Etiquette experts say the book on manners must be rewritten, literally, to take into account new technologies and social media. "Technology is such an area of anxiety for people," says Steven Petrow, an author of etiquette books.

Petrow has addressed a number of issues for the digital age including mass emails that reveal the names of all recipients (which is not OK, he says), and how to deal with wedding guests who want to share smartphone pictures before the official photos are available (he urges the couple to make their wishes clear in the invitation). "Fundamentally, I come back to my core values, which are about respect, kindness and civility," Petrow said. Social media such as Facebook pose particular etiquette problems: if users post news about a death, birth or engagement before relatives are notified, that can create tensions among family members.

These digital dilemmas will only increase as technology evolves.

SJP (@DigitalAsian)