Social Rules #1-5

1. Your communication device should be turned off or silent the moment you leave the privacy of home and walk out your door. You'll never have to worry about it in later public places if you make a habit of it.

2. Your communication device is for communicating. But consider: what exactly is the value of what you are communicating. When the plane lands and is still taxiing on the runway do you really need to call someone and say, "Hey!...I just landed...Uh-huh...Really...Wow...So what's going on?" (Clearly, this kind of conversation - and haven't we all heard this? - is not the person who is meeting you and picking you up, so what is the urgency of this call?)

3. Pictures (or recording of any kind) is never allowed in any theater. Even of yourself and your seatmates sitting inside. Even of an empty stage. Okay, once I was at a cabaret show and the performer allowed it and encouraged it only if she would get more publicity from people's Facebook and YouTube pages. Seriously: put the cameras and camera phones away. Buy a postcard of the theater interior if you must. Or better yet: go to more theater and support live performing arts, and maybe the novelty of being inside such a space will wear off, and you will funnel much-needed resources to the undervalued arts.

4. Please do not engage in conversations (via your mobile device or in person) at the foot of any staircase, in front of any entrance or exit, in front of elevator doors, in front of public restrooms, at the ATM, or at the top/bottom of escalators. Believe it or not, there are other people in the world. And your conversation is getting in the way of their lives.

5. Context, context, context. Just be aware of your surroundings. Overheard on MUNI at louder than conversational volume: "Yeah, I know. And I was like, OK with it, because it wasn't even great sex and I wasn't that into him anyway. I know. Uh-huh. Right? I was so excited that my test came back and I wasn't pregnant too. Oh wait, that reminds me: did you get your test back? Is it cancer? Really?" (And yes, it went on from there.) You can always say, "I need to call you back later; I can't talk right now." If the conversation is that important, someone would have given you a private office to have it in (with an assistant outside the door).