I'm over 50 years old and that means I've been alive long enough to remember the time before smartphones while experiencing the change that took place after they came vibrating into our lives.

It seems strange to me that there are fully realized adults out there holding down jobs, driving cars and otherwise making important decisions who don't remember a time when we weren't constantly connected.

Stranger to me still, it seems that no real etiquette has been established for smartphone use after all this time, and this, I think, is a problem.​

It's important to know that I come to this from a pro-smartphone perspective.

After all, where does being anti-technology get us?​

No phone while driving, a point worth repeating

The first rule of smartphone etiquette is obvious and yet too many of us ignore it on a regular basis: absolutely no smartphone use while driving.

This is for the very simple reason that you could kill someone!

If that fact alone doesn't do it for you, there are three other ways around this.

Rather than talk and drive, pull over, turn on your signal light and have your conversation on the shoulder of the road. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

You could either shut your cell phone off while driving to avoid temptation, go hands-free, or even pull over, well out of traffic, any time you engage with your phone.

Slightly less dangerous, if not equally annoying, is walking while on your smartphone.

Let's face it, most of us have a hard enough time sharing the sidewalk without being on our phones.

Add this distraction to the mix, and you've got the equivalent of running the gauntlet. Clearly, we're not going to stop walking-and-blocking, but let's all at least try to be a little more aware of the potential irritant we present in this scenario.

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