The effects of our cellphones, computers, tablets, and who-knows-what-else on the domestic sphere has become a major cause of concern. Some worry that friends and family are rude to each other, glued as they are to their mobile phones, each alone, together. A popular remedy revolves around a simple game: When you meet up with folks you care about, everyone should put their phones in a stack, and either not retrieve them until the gathering ends, or else pay a penalty for early use, like picking up a dinner bill.

While plenty attest that this is a wonderful ritual for boosting attentiveness and pro-social behavior, others lament that banning technology unduly narrows the possibilities for how folks can interact. If you're with a crowd that can bond over online information that’s collectively interesting, and if everyone is ready to put away their phones after the devices are communally used, phone stack rules can be overly restrictive. After all, the crowd that binds themselves to the stack’s power probably does so more because participants recognize personal limits—difficulty resisting the siren call of texts and tweets—than because they lack an intuitive sense of how to properly behave.

Given variations in willpower, resolve, and interactive styles, some phone stack users deserve praise for being conscientious. However, we should avoid assuming that those who reject phone stack norms inherently are selfish, apathetic, or unwilling to take active steps to promote meaningful engagement. And, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that on occasion it can be quite reasonable to turn to technology to escape from face-to-face interaction. When stuck with an insensitive crowd, tuning out only appears rude to outsiders who lack the context to appreciate the justified resistance.  

New research shows that the quality of our intimate relationships probably is affected more by whether folks share the same values than if they adhere to any particular etiquette standard. In a manuscript under review about mobile phone use, communication studies professor Jeffrey Hall and Microsoft researchers Nancy Baym and Kate Miltner argue that there’s no real evidence supporting the assertion that people who are prone to burying their faces in screens will be stuck having low-quality close relationships. Instead, they found that what matters most is compatibility—believing that your friends or partners endorse the same norms you do.   

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