Who Would You Cheer For?

I'm not sure who is more annoying, yoga posers or Facebook/iPhone lemmings. That is why I find this story so amusing:

Yoga teacher fired over cell phone ban at Facebook

 For years, yoga instructor Alice Van Ness has started her classes with a simple request - that students turn their cell phones off.She brought that policy with her to Facebook, where she began teaching a weekly class at the company's Menlo Park campus in March. But it proved to be a hard policy to follow for at least one employee, who began tapping away on her phone in the middle of class. And after Van Ness shot her a disapproving look, the instructor found herself out of a job.

This is what happens when one dare question the entitlement of Generation Net.

"Hello - this is only Facebook," said Van Ness, whose firing cost her a teaching gig at Cisco too. "We're not talking about the U.S. government here. We're not talking about Russia is about to bomb us. We're talking about Facebook. Something can't wait half an hour?"
Facebook declined to comment. Representatives for Plus One Health Management did not respond to requests for comment. In its termination notice, the company suggested the Facebook incident was part of a pattern of strict behavior on Van Ness' part; she had previously asked a Cisco employee not to take photographs of the class while it was in session. 

Sorry Ms. Van Ness, when your students have 30 second attention spans, 30 minutes is like, forever. Besides, the student was probably just looking up the current stock price of FB. Must be devastating to have thought you were going to be rich and realize you're just another working chump like the rest of us.

The incident highlights a growing tension in health studios, where students come to leave the world behind but often find themselves incapable of not checking their text messages, e-mails and - of course - Facebook. As smart-phone usage has grown, many studios have posted prominent notices asking students to leave them outside the studio.
But at a yoga class on a corporate campus, setting aside job responsibilities entirely, even for a few minutes during the work day, can be a stretch.

Surely amazing perks like free yoga classes are a great recruiting tool. Guess Facebook forgot to tell their employees they had to work while doing it. Reminds me of a parent who tells the child, "sure have a cupcake!" and every time he reaches for it he gets slapped on the hand with a ruler. If that was indeed the case at Facebook. More likely, the student was just an insufferable twit.

Van Ness said her class at Facebook was just beginning when she noticed a student in the front row using a cell phone. She asked the entire class to shut the devices off. Halfway into their routine, just as they began the pose known as ardha chandrasna, the same student picked up her phone again.
Van Ness said nothing, but shot the student a look.
"I'm sure my face said it all," she later said in a blog post. "Really? Your e-mail is more important than understanding your body? It's more important than taking time for you? It's more important than everyone else here?"

Van Ness is such a dinosaur. Of course email is more important than your body. She probably still had a flip phone and listens to CD's.

"The culture of these places is to let them do whatever they want," she said. "And I'm just not really OK with anarchy."
She crumpled up her termination notice and discarded it. In an apparent show of support, her roommate's cat, Veronica, tore it up.

 Fight the Power Van Ness! Sounds like you may have a bright future as a cat lady.

Strangely, after reading the article the whole episode reminded me of the Battle of Stalingrad where we had Communists fighting Nazis. Tough to know who to root for. That was my same dilemma with this story. I am not sure which stereotype is more annoying, holier-than-thou yoga instructors, or people that simply cannot turn off their smart phones even for a second.