Up In The Air, When Social Media Invades The Cabin

During a recent domestic flight to Buffalo, NY, a tour group headed to Niagara Falls missed an earlier connecting flight and was accommodated in the First Class cabin, interspersed between routine business travelers on their way to work.  As the flight unfolded, the tourists began documenting every waking minute of the flight on Facetime, Periscope and Twitter.  Finally one frequent flier finally spoke up and quelled the social media circus, without assistance from an oblivious flight attendant.  So goes the friendly skies in today’s modern age of constant connectivity and social media frenzies.

Understandably the tour group was excited to be on their junket to The Falls, but airlines and their flight crews need to establish and enforce rules that respect passenger privacy and keep flights as peaceful as possible.  Today’s social media users often blur the line between being tech savvy communicators and obnoxious cretins who care more about selfies, Skypes and Snapchats rather than the annoyance they cause on their nearby neighbors.   As regimented and regulated as flights are, airlines and their employees inconsistently communicate the dos and don’ts of social media use onboard airplanes.

Airlines need to exercise control over the cabins in their cabins by utilizing multiple streams of communication to remind passengers to exercise proper Social Media etiquette while onboard.   Public service message type ads in terminals, articles in inflight magazines and crew member announcements would be logical communication points to address this situation and make flying a bit more bearable for the masses. Surely if no smoking bans and tampering with lavatory smoke detectors the airlines can begin to enforce flagrant misuse of social media while aloft.