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In the August edition of Wired there is a great article called The New Rules for Highly Evolved Humans: A scientific approach to 21st century predicaments. What I liked about the article is that it attempts to put some guidelines around our digital lives.  As technology advances so to do the rules of social norms and how we interact with them.  You know how irritating it is when you are in a cramped elevator and blasting in your ear is some dude on his cell phone reviewing his grocery list at ungodly volumes so everyone can hear about how healthy his choices are.  Wired attempts to right the ship and offer us some key guidelines to this digital age.  Here are some highlights:

Texting is OK While in the Company of Others – So they reference a study of teen texting that said “texting those who couldn’t be there lets everyone feel they’re apart of a larger social network”. I can buy that. We all have texted our friends who couldn’t be there to tell them we miss them or just to rub it in. Either way it makes me feel good. Here is their “rule of thumb”: Feel free to text while talking or dining with Friends-but only if you are trying to include someone who isn’t there. If your motive is to shut out  people you are with you already know the answer.

Don’t Lie With Your Facebook Photo: They take it a bit far by saying that Facebook is a window to the soul. But in a sense they are right.  It gives people a glimpse into who  you are as a person. The subtle variations in our Facebook pages serve as cues for other’s interpretation of us. They references another research study that concluded “Just by looking at photos, strangers were able to correctly peg the narcissim scores of subjects with excessive self-regard.” In other words keep it real son. If you are bald don’t use a photo from when you had hair, don’t use your glamour shot from 1987, and for pete’s sake “stick with a recent, normal snapshot-unless you want to look like a tool.”

Never Broadcast Your Relationship Status: Man I couldn’t agree with this more. Seriously, we all know breakups suck and that fights with your BF or GF are the worst but are they really what peeps want to hear about? Do you really want the world to know that you are crying your self to sleep tonight because he said she said. Wired puts it best…”Matters of the heart are too fraught to boil down to the choices offered in a dropdown. Sharing such news is best done in person….Using such short hand to declare a breakup is like announcing you are going to sleep by pouding the lamp with a hammer. It gets the point across, but you are likely to leave a mess behind.” Amen to that.

Ditch the Headset: I don’t think I have heard anyone put it better….”Let’s be clear: Walking around with a Blue Tooth device in your ear is pure douchebaggery. There is no excuse for it.”

Check out the August 2009 edition of Wired for more….