You're viewing an article in iPO's historic archive vault. Here, we've preserved the comments and how the site looked along with the article. Use this link to view the article on our current site: Wired's Mr. Know-It-All Looks at iPod Etiquette

News

Wired's Mr. Know-It-All Looks at iPod Etiquette

Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 3:00 PM - by

What do you do when you're on a train with someone who has his iPod cranked so loudly he can't hear his cell phone ringing? According to Wired's Mr. Know-It-All, you have several options including ignoring the situation, approaching the person, or at least making a brave attempt at alerting them.

At issue, of course, is the fact that many people use their iPods as a shield against other people they may encounter in public. As such, do you as a friendly fellow near the person, leave someone in this scenario to their own devices, or do you risk invading their personnel space?

If you choose to try to help out, you should first analyze the situation and figure out what disposition the iPod owner has. If they look unfriendly, or are scowling, feel free to let them be. When interviewed by Mr. Know-It-All for the article, this reporter said, "If their body language is different — if there's not a back the F away from me' vibe — I would go ahead and do something,"

Peter Post, director of the Emily Post Institute, told Mr. Know-It-All that if an "excuse me" or even a friendly wave doesn't do the trick, you've done your civic duty.

The article appears in the March edition of Wired in print, and has also been published online.

0 comments from the community.

You can post your own below.

+ show options

Your current settings, click to change: Sort Oldest First, Show Guest Posts, Hide Community Stats

Post Your Comments

  Remember Me

Not a member? Register now. You can post comments without logging in, but they'll show up as a "guest" post.


Please enter the word exactly as you see it in the image above. Registered users aren't prompted for this. Having trouble reading the image get a new one.