MediaPsyched.com

At first glance this article on the etiquette of using a laptop or other device in business meetings does not fall under the realm of a media psychology topic.  But I am going to speak from experience here…stay with me.

The article focuses on attendees in a corporate business meeting and their use of a laptop while people are speaking.  Not for note-taking or relevant access to info needed in the meeting but for conducting outside business and personal communication and web surfing these people deem is more important to their lives than the meeting.  The ugly head of “me” raises again. The idea that if a person is not interested they can use their time for something that interests them is very self-centered. 

Back when I was travelling internationally for my employer, I was amazed at the obsession of people answering cell phones and PDAs.  I was based in a US office and the majority of managers were expats from other countries - I was the lone US born female.  I would sit in meetings and watch as these guys would attempt to show their importance by obsessively interrupting and ignoring the person running the meeting by giving priority to the device.  Completely clueless in corporate protocol.

Rudeness is part of it.  You can’t teach some people good manners.  But the proliferation of the expectation of having every environment as we want it is narcissitic.

I am out of the loop nowadays for the young workers evidently:

Laptops in meetings are also becoming fashion accessories, especially among employees in their 20s and early 30s. Their PCs have stickers like those of a high school binder: snowboard products, or geeky sayings like “My other PC is your laptop — I’m a hacker.” There are political bumper stickers and all kinds of things that show off their interests, their image, their sense of humor.

Do I really want to look at and be exposed to the individuals’ beliefs, thoughts, etc. in my work environment.  It’s bad enough to have to read car bumper stickers…but now having the read the backs of laptops?  Me, me, me.

I’ll close my rant today with my recollection of a very famous corporate titan’s words years ago as the cell phone became ubiquitous in our business lives.  Someone asked him why he didn’t carry a cell phone.  His response was to the extent, “Well, if it’s that important they will call back. I don’t have to answer just because someone is calling.”

Online memorial pages for the deceased are becoming as popular in the UK as they have been in the US especially since the rash of murders which have occurred in England recently. An interesting development that is occuring as a result of these pages has been termed “death-networking.”

The sites are not only used as shrines, but have increasingly become a forum for “death networking”–a medium for users to discuss everything from gang culture, to suicide, to stillbirth. [For] a generation which spends so much of its time of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, it is quite natural to mourn and honor dead friends online.  [According to the founder of one of the largest UK sites,] “young people find it easier to express themselves this way. If they had to visit graveyards or go to funerals they wouldn’t know what to say, but on the Internet they are more confident and comfortable with saying how they feel.”

This makes very good sense especially for teens and examples were given in the article of other topics being discussed that are tangental to the person’s life and death such as gang mentality, etc.   Ideally this forum would be a supplemental outlet to discussions conducted face-to-face with parents.

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Just an observation, but of the course the mandatory environmental reference had to be worked into the article:

Candy [a founder of a site memorializing her teenage daughter] goes as far as to predict online shrines may soon consign cemeteries and graveyards to the past. “Online memorials are good for the environment,” she says. “We are running out of space in this country for graves, and cemeteries–well yes, there are some nice ones, but generally speaking you wouldn’t want to live next door to one.

So (sorry-I just can’t resist asking),  ”will these virtual memorials qualify for carbon offsets?”

There’s a saying that something good can come from bad.  An AP story on the development of a virtual reality therapy for those returning from Iraq with post-traumatic stress syndrome highlights one prospective good.

This new technology allows for a re-creation of the actual traumatic event including sounds, smells, and temperatures.

Previously, options for treating PTSD involved group or individual psychotherapy, or having a person imagine their experience, Wiederhold [President of the Virtual Raelity Medical Center in San Diego] said. “The issue is you want to access the fear hierarchy in patients,” Wiederhold said. “Only about 15 percent of people are good imaginers. They have difficulty maintaining that state of imagining a scenario. Virtual reality is a much more vivid experience.”

Although this technology has been in trial in other circumstances, I am glad to see such an aggressive effort to develop this for the returning servicemen and women. Combined with appropriate therapy, this virtual reality can hopefully contribute to a healthier “real” reality

Welcome!  This is the first post of, I hope, many to come.  My objective is for this blog to serve as a conversation place on how media (all forms) can have an effect on our behavior and subsequently on society.  Sounds simple at first but it starts getting complex when you realize just how many messages we receive and process constantly.

I’ll always touch on current mainstream topics just to get my opinion in on what is making headlines, but I will also post article links and summaries of exciting research being done in this area.  Thanks for looking and please bookmark me.  Comments for future observations are welcomed!