Are iPhones replacing good manners?

Now, I admit that I am a little behind in the world of mobile technology…being in the non-iPhone-owner minority - for which I am regularly sneered at, I might add. But I am up there in the world of Social media - I have a Facebook page, I’m on LinkedIn, I have a page on Twitter (which I’ll admit I don’t use) and I am a regular email and web user. However, I am wondering when and why the use of all of these combined became acceptable within meetings or formal situations?

It’s something that has been increasingly bugging me over the past few months. I realise, in this day and age where every second of business time is precious, that the use of mobile technology has enabled us to keep in touch with colleagues/clients whenever required - but how is it ok to continue this mobile communication within meetings? It used to be bad form to take your mobile phone into a meeting unless there was a specific, urgent requirement to have it there. It was certainly bad form not to have it on silent. But the iPhone seems to have made it ok for old fashioned etiquette to be thrown out of the window. It has become acceptable to respond to the beep of an email or text message in the middle of a meeting - it has become ok to pick up calls. At a recent conference (granted, the subject was the use of online communities within B2B marketing), delegates were ‘twittering’ throughout. Which was fine - they were interacting with people unable to attend. But I couldn’t understand how they could genuinely give the speakers their full attention - I also wondered how off-putting it was for speakers to be presenting to people glued to their phones. At this point, I might add that the delegate in front of me spent a large amount of time checking his emails throughout the conference.

Perhaps I need to move with the times - I realise that having everything - emails, phone, calendar in one handy device is convenient - I even think that the apps you can buy are cool, but I still don’t like the fact that the iPhone seems to be taking away manners. Unless it’s a matter of life or death, is it really a problem to leave it for an hour? After all, surely productivity levels and efficiency are being compromised because we’re trying to do too much, too often? Is there too much expectation to multi-multi task thanks to the technology available? I’d be really interested in your comments - do I just need to get with the times and accept that all forms of communication are acceptable at all times?