The article puts terms to a lot of behaviors that I have observed myself first hand. I am definitely familiar with the situation in which a "with" group is transformed into a cell phone conversation and a "single". The article makes an interesting point by explaining the behavior of the "single" as a defense-mechanism to the vulnerabilities of being alone in a public location. From my own personal experience I would agree whole heartedly with this theory. I have experienced the situation where a companion has left to take a call and a sense of anxiety arises in me. My own personal defense-mechanism I use, and for many others from what I've seen, is to begin to interact with my own phone. Usually this interaction may be to write an unnecessary text messages, read over previous conversations, or play a game. The interaction with my cell phone reduces my sense of anxiety even though it provides no real purpose. One reason for this as explained in the article is that the activity relieves the feeling of being the odd-man out.
Another scenario described in the article that I could relate to is the idea labeled "Listening in". The article presents an interview where the subject explains how she may listen in on a conversation but pretends to not be listening. I wouldn't say that I to partake in this behavior but it's a nice intro into one of the articles focal points, "Somewhere we are taught that we are not supposed to listen to conversations in which we are not participating." This social rule seems to remain the norm even today as cell phones are becoming more and more popular. Unless the person on the phone is one of my very close friends then I feel like it's not my place to listen. The article shows how people will try and create space for others in order to avoid eavesdropping, such as walking behind or ahead of someone on a cell phone. I see and experience this type of behavior all the time on campus.
One social norm that the article didn't mention is the expectation of access to information. What I mean by this is that people who own internet ready phones are expected to produce answers to questions they normally wouldn't know. I know in my group of friends when I have a trivia like question, for example what was the score of this and this game, I'll direct it to a person with a smart phone. I don't expect that they themselves know the answer, but I know they can easily get access to it through their phone. Also, the response from the person with the phone isn't, why would I know that, it's to immediately whip out their phone and find the answer. I think that more powerful cell phones like the iphone and blackberry have changed the expectations for people's knowledge base.
Another societal change these smart phones have caused is the disregard for plans. This change is again related to people's expectation of access to information. Instead of planning what event to check out that night or what the best route to get there is, groups assume that this information will be available to them on the way there. When an idea for a trip is made little time is taken to look up routes or other events nearby. Groups just rush off with the expectation that if something goes wrong they will have their phones by their side to solve their problems. These changes were probably not mentioned in the article because access to the mobile internet was not nearly as easy and powerful as it is five years later.
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