Generation Tech or Disrespect?

In this day and age we have everything we need practically at our fingertips and we become impatient if we have to wait even a few seconds for browsers to load, emails to send, and people to call us back. In reality picking up the phone to call someone is probably a choice of communication far down in the list of options. It is much quicker to email or text someone, and it removes the actual person-to-person contact that can be somewhat feared.

Recently I have found myself pondering how my children's character development will be influenced by my use of technology. When my kids are with me, I find myself being conscious of how many times I am picking up my phone to check my email, twitter or Facebook. Am I using my ear piece if I have to talk on the phone while driving? (More a direct concern for their safety and not character development!) A big pet peeve of mine is when people are too busy talking to someone on the phone that they can't even bother to say one word to a cashier in a store. I try to make it a point to not talk on the phone when I am having a face to face interaction. It is so easy to pick up the phone every 5 minutes to check the latest statuses. I want my kids to feel like they are more important to me than my phone, and I want them to learn that they show respect to others by giving them their full attention.

Maybe it is a stretch to say that their character development will be affected, so I turn the question to you. Is our society becoming more tolerant of aloof and disrespectful behavior? Or have these behaviors become so commonplace that no one notices?