Nick, hats off to you . . . i too can type without taking my eyes off the deck.
*squint* I see what you did there......not exactly sure it was necessary, but I see what you did there.
But this has little to do with SM taking in information (although I think open computers lead to wandering through the internet . . .), but it's the perception of other people.
Except for the times I'm serving my database over a wifi network, my internet is turned off. I understand that the perception of those who have been in the business longer than I have may resist the new wave of technology, but I find that the older methods are....I hesitate to say frowned upon, but I find that newer companies have been hesitant when I show up to their rehearsals without a laptop and just a legal pad and pen.
Some directors hate that when they say something, it is immediately typed in to the report.
I personally hate a group of stage manager sitting six feet away with lap top opens - I would rather have one person running the room, and the rest of the team working outside of the room. It's a bit about keeping the energy going, but keeping the focus on the work in the room. It's not about noise, but for example, try to have a Hamlet act "to be or not to be", but have another actor sitting against the wall texting . . . it's just doesn't feel right.
I think jotting down a note is fine during rehearsal, adding something to report, what I have a problem is the SMs that get deep into updating paperwork in the middle of rehearsal to the point they have no idea what is going on right before them.
I agree with all these statements for the most part.
I have worked with directors that dislike it when I copy down what they say as they say it, but I also check with them before I send out any report/email asking about it. It's still their process and if they like to spitball ideas out as "what ifs" during rehearsal, that's great. I just always check with them and delete anything they don't want in the notes, which is basically (I think) the same idea as what you're saying, except you do it in reverse. You
add information to the final report, whereas I
delete information not wanted. I may be wrong, and I apologize if I am not understanding your process.
I can't say which was is best to run a room where there is more than a stage manager and an ASM. But when I'm in a room by myself for a musical with 20-30 people, I'd rather have the technology open and available to me to make my life as easy as possible.
I wholeheartedly agree that getting lost in paperwork during rehearsal is unacceptable. That's what you do after rehearsal. Update the changes made that day. Bring the paperwork back to current after rehearsal. I'm not advocating the stage management team be on an island of technology and no one can reach them except via email or text. All I'm saying is that technology makes me personally a more efficient and organized stage manager.
I also agree that people who don't know when to turn off their technology during rehearsal is an issue, especially if being used for non-production related things. But if I'm using my laptop to take a note during rehearsal that's different because it's show related, and I think it should be permitted. Someone watching a youtube video on their phone on the sides of the room is rude and unacceptable.
But now at this point...we're arguing personal styles and we may never necessarily agree (though it does seem that at the core of it all, we have the same ideals of respect for one another in the rehearsal room but different interpretations of use of technology by a stage manager)
I guess as someone who learned the traditional ways of stage managing in college, but also being on the cusp of the wave of technology that has washed over theater, I prefer the technological methods over "old school" record keeping. I think they are cleaner and easier than older methods. There are obvious benefits to both, and obvious faults in both as well.
As to the topic of this thread: I do not think I would ever be truly comfortable with an entirely digital anything in this business. The odds of damage to the drive it's being stored on is too great. But that's why there are printers to take the digital media and make it a physical thing.