Cell phones a problem in classroom, says new study

Although few college students actually take cell phone calls in class, sending and receiving text messages during a lecture has become an acceptable part of cell phone culture, according to research from James Katz, professor of communications at Rutgers University and director of the Center for Mobile Communications Studies, and Jing Wang, a professor of Chinese language and culture at MIT.

Only 4 percent of Rutgers students surveyed considered it OK to talk on a phone in class. While that's good news for professor, the downside is that 45 percent considered exchanging text messages permissible while 33 percent of students thought it acceptable to play games on a cell phone during class.

Katz, however, also found that the concept of territoriality--i.e. where it's acceptable to talk on the phone and where it is not--is gaining ground. Restaurants are still contested spaces where the societal customs have yet to be firmly cemented, but designated "quiet" cars on commuter and places like museums have largely become cell phone free.

Wang, meanwhile, studied cell phone and consumer electronic device behavioral norms in China. In China, for instance, the iPod is very popular among kids. Few, however, have credit cards so they don't buy songs off iTunes. Instead, the fill up the music players with pirated music.