Timeline for How to deal with people looking at their mobile phone during my presentation?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
55 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 5, 2021 at 12:28 | answer | added | Tom | timeline score: 0 | |
| Aug 5, 2021 at 12:27 | comment | added | Tom | Someone is listening carefully to what you saying. Give the presentation to the best of your ability for that person. Like Ian McKellen says in ''The Dresser'', when you go out on stage to perform a play someone understands what you are doing, so you do it for that person, even if everyone else in the audience doesn't care and is not paying attention. | |
| Feb 12, 2017 at 8:36 | history | edited | aparente001 |
added tag
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| Apr 22, 2016 at 13:56 | history | edited | Brian Tompsett - 汤莱恩 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
removed slight gender reference for improvement of question
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| Dec 23, 2015 at 8:43 | answer | added | Fraïssé | timeline score: 1 | |
| Dec 22, 2015 at 16:53 | answer | added | jakebeal | timeline score: 4 | |
| Dec 22, 2015 at 15:35 | answer | added | Daniel | timeline score: 4 | |
| Aug 31, 2015 at 17:58 | comment | added | BlueWizard | I'm reading this article right now whilst in presentstion :D | |
| Aug 26, 2015 at 8:09 | comment | added | DCTLib | @Mehrdad Well, they were typing - for this action to make sense, they must reserve some cognitive resources for that task. | |
| Aug 25, 2015 at 9:52 | answer | added | Davidmh | timeline score: 2 | |
| Aug 24, 2015 at 7:33 | comment | added | Thomas Padron-McCarthy | Being a polite and considerate individual, I always try to look interested and awake during presentations. It is, of course, all an act. In reality, I am thinking of other things, like all the mail I have to read. | |
| Aug 24, 2015 at 2:14 | comment | added | user541686 | @DCTLib: Did you actually verify that they were multi-tasking? As in, do you know they weren't just idly looking at their phones and actually putting all their attention on the presentation they were hearing? (i.e. Do you know if they were also paying attention to their phones, rather than merely looking at them?) | |
| Aug 23, 2015 at 22:33 | answer | added | jvriesem | timeline score: 13 | |
| Aug 23, 2015 at 19:48 | comment | added | user13589 | @Ben: Is it rude because it is actually doing something problematic, or is it just one of those things where some people get offended if you don't properly participate in a ritual? | |
| Aug 23, 2015 at 16:18 | history | protected | eykanal | ||
| Aug 23, 2015 at 14:33 | comment | added | user1482 | @Hurkyl: My mind is boggled that your mind is boggled. This is incredibly rude behavior. | |
| Aug 23, 2015 at 9:33 | answer | added | Raphael | timeline score: 1 | |
| Aug 22, 2015 at 20:48 | comment | added | user13589 | I'm a little boggled that people find this rude. I could understand if they were making noise, or interrupting because they have to ask a question because they missed something, but to be upset because they aren't pretending to give you their undivided attention? | |
| Aug 21, 2015 at 22:04 | answer | added | Christos Hayward | timeline score: -4 | |
| Aug 21, 2015 at 11:22 | comment | added | Raphael | @Warlord099 I have been saying for a long time that we need WLAN, 3G, ... jammers in seminar and lecture rooms. (In a few years, how would we take exams otherwise?) | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 22:37 | comment | added | Franck Dernoncourt | Are we in 2015 or in 1915? | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 22:14 | comment | added | user38886 | No matter how you package it...it is just plain rude!! | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 20:37 | vote | accept | user17585 | ||
| Aug 20, 2015 at 19:09 | answer | added | David Richerby | timeline score: 6 | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 17:49 | comment | added | MonkeyZeus | @Warlord099 Marvelous idea! "Talk, talk, talk, important stuff, talk, and now I will demonstrate my pocket-sized EMP which can be set for a 30, 50, or 70 yard radius." | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 13:26 | comment | added | Warlord 099 | One idea, albeit a horrible idea, but a good EMP could do the trick... | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 12:36 | comment | added | Cape Code | @AMR terrible, terrible advice. This means you let yourself and the whole audience get distracted by a trivial hit to your ego. Just ignore them. | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 12:04 | comment | added | JiK | @AMR What here makes you think that academians here don't expect to be respected? And do you think that embarrassing audience (e.g. by being silent until they stop) helps them gain respect? | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 10:50 | comment | added | AMR | @gerrit, that is where you are wrong. They might not get those two professors recommendations, but they will get much better ones as the rest of the people in the room will say to themselves that this person respects their work enough to expect respect from everyone present, and that what they are doing matters. I didn't say throw a temper tantrum, I just said wait. Silence is an incredibly powerful thing in public speaking. And who's to say that you aren't affording them the respect to wait until their ultra important, couldn't wait message is finished before you continue. | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 10:36 | comment | added | gerrit | @AMR That all sounds very noble, but as an early career scientist depends on recommendations from senior scientists to progress in xyr career, getting a reputation to call out and embarrass inconsiderate seniors is not helpful. | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 10:32 | comment | added | AMR | @gerrit, people can be powerful without status, if they have an expectation that they will be shown respect and that what they have to say and the work that they have done matters. If nothing else it will make that point to everyone else in the room, even if the boors don't get the message. And how do you think those "internationally famous" people got to be who they are? They lived with the expectation that what they did mattered and that they should be taken seriously, probably as far back as the playground. And if you don't feel that what you do is that important, then stop doing it. | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 10:09 | comment | added | gerrit | @AMR I doubt that works when the speaker is a PhD student and the distracted senior professor an internationally famous researcher in the field. | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 7:19 | comment | added | Raphael | @Kimball In a research talk, I find it hard to believe they TeX along. Especially if they don't look up. So if they TeX, they probably write on their latest paper, or their slides for their own talk later. Both are unacceptable. If they do TeX along, they should get a very silent keyboard, and some might say they'd still demonstrate desinterest. | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 3:50 | answer | added | aparente001 | timeline score: 5 | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 3:46 | answer | added | Count Iblis | timeline score: 4 | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 2:15 | comment | added | AMR | And I cannot believe most all of the answers here... The lack of self-esteem is mind boggling and it is no wonder that so many people view academics in general and science in particular with such disdain. What you do should matter or you shouldn't be doing it at all. If you are not willing to expect respect from a room full of colleagues then how do you expect to get the tax paying public, who is likely footing the bill for your research to take you seriously. Are you all so beaten down by your PIs and Mentors that you expect to be treated like an unimportant nobody? | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 2:05 | comment | added | AMR | This is the most effective way I have seen. Stop your presentation, stay quiet and look at them in as neutral a way as possible. Eventually the entire room will focus on them, and they will get the message and stop, or someone in the audience who is actually interested in what you have to say will state the obvious for you. When they put their devices away or get up and walk out, then continue. No one likes that kind of attention and it will set the tone for the rest of the presentation, so people will be less apt to draw that attention. If someone does it again, stop again. | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 1:46 | comment | added | Kimball | @Raphael are you opposed to live texing then? | |
| Aug 20, 2015 at 1:45 | comment | added | Daniel Griscom | If you knew one of their cell numbers, you could call them and ask them to please look up and pay attention. | |
| Aug 19, 2015 at 23:26 | answer | added | paul garrett | timeline score: 25 | |
| Aug 19, 2015 at 23:07 | comment | added | Jörg W Mittag | At a concert recently, I saw something which really worked well, where the performer, instead of asking everybody to turn off their phones, said something like "Welcome to <venue>, my name is <artist>, I hope you enjoy my show, and please don't forget to your phones back on after the concert!" | |
| Aug 19, 2015 at 22:03 | answer | added | Wolfgang Bangerth | timeline score: 87 | |
| Aug 19, 2015 at 21:30 | comment | added | JiK | FWIW, I think it's extremely polite for someone to come to hear to my talk, even if they apparently need to do other things or are not very interested. So when I see someone not concentrating, I usually don't have any unpleasant feelings. But I guess you can't force yourself to think the same way, so this probably doesn't qualify as an answer. | |
| Aug 19, 2015 at 21:13 | answer | added | alephzero | timeline score: 3 | |
| Aug 19, 2015 at 21:01 | comment | added | Oswald Veblen | Just ignore it. Used to be, people just stared off into space or scribbled notes on a piece of paper - their attention spans were never any longer than they are now. | |
| Aug 19, 2015 at 20:35 | comment | added | Carsten S | They neither slept nor graded course work. | |
| Aug 19, 2015 at 19:11 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackAcademia/status/634080178529009664 | ||
| Aug 19, 2015 at 18:35 | comment | added | DCTLib | On a related note, there are some people who are excellent multi-taskers - I've seen this behavior a couple of times, and oftentimes, the first row cell phone typers still ask to-the-point questions at the end of the talk. | |
| Aug 19, 2015 at 18:04 | answer | added | Stephan Kolassa | timeline score: 76 | |
| Aug 19, 2015 at 16:17 | comment | added | Raphael | Be glad they didn't have laptops and typed furiously the whole time... *sigh* | |
| Aug 19, 2015 at 15:54 | comment | added | arober11 | "professors", they're tricky, but a cardboard box, some crayons, a few sweets, and the promise of a Happy Meal may have worked, but trying to keep them focused for more than 5 min's is a universal issue ;) | |
| Aug 19, 2015 at 14:34 | answer | added | o-0 | timeline score: 49 | |
| Aug 19, 2015 at 14:08 | history | edited | user17585 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
clarity
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| Aug 19, 2015 at 14:08 | answer | added | Danny Ruijters | timeline score: 19 | |
| Aug 19, 2015 at 13:55 | history | asked | user17585 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |