Where's Emily Post When You Need Her?!?

As digital communications become ever more prevalent, we are facing new challenges and issues. Lists of "tech no-nos" (sorry Kristin) are appearing everywhere, as aggravating communication habits are aggregated.

There are a handful of us asking the questions "What's proper?" and "What's tacky?" when it comes to digital communications. But we might as well pose the questions via a Twitter handle with no followers, for all the insight we're getting. The problem is that no one has the answers.

Certain forms of digital communication are so new and being adopted in new ways so quickly that the societal norms and acceptable standards can not keep up. As soon as we had a universal cell phone etiquette, cell phones became able to do more: email, text, feed fish, etc. Well, that changes things. The rule of "don't talk on your cell phone at the table" does not address cell phone-based activities beyond talking. Is it acceptable to text at the dinner table? What if you're updating your Facebook status to reflect the fact that you're on a date? Or if you're Tweeting the content of the riveting dialogue you're listening to?

Today's Washington Post article, Text is Cheap, asserts that texting while in a one-on-one social setting is rude. Anyone who has been regaling a friend with horrors of online dating only to realize that the friend is texting and/or reading gossip blogs on their PDA would agree that the brush off stings.

In one-on-one settings, the choice of digital chips over live conversation is pretty clearly inappropriate. But in larger settings, the lines blur. If I'm at a luncheon with an engaging speaker and I'm texting a colleague with insights from the address...is that rude? Would the speaker be flattered that I was sharing his/her remarks? Or annoyed that I didn’t wait until the end of the luncheon?

What other digital communications etiquette questions are floating around? What guidelines do you follow?

Send me your thoughts and complaints or anecdotes. Our collective wisdom might make Fizzle Pop the new authority on digital communication etiquette!