Sun, sea, surf and cellphones

I made a very Interesting study of group dynamics involving the use of a mobile phone recently.....

I was on a scuba diving boat trip recently in Egypt. 12 strangers from all over the world plus several boat and dive staff, and we all introduced ourselves and chatted and mingled throughout the day, even though there were some very different personalities and cultures on the boat.

But an American guy sat for the first half an hour as the boat motored out to the first dive site, on his mobile talking business (and that really dull chat "yes get Jones to send the Twoddle report to Smith and what were the results from the Tosh meeting"). You could see eyes boring into him from all over the boat. He wasn't exactly quiet as he did it either! And when his mobile rang during the dive briefing, there were a dozen people who wanted to throw him overboard.

For the rest of the day nobody spoke to him - he was totally ostrasised from the group. Up on the top deck there was suddenly no space for him to sit as towels were subconsciously laid out to fill all the space. Every single other person managed to find a space except him - he ended up sitting down in the galley.

I know many people will read this and come up with several other conclusions as to why nobody would chat to him, but the fact that he spent the first half hour in his own world on his mobile instead of integrating himself into the group says an awful lot to me.....

steve/itagg.com