A talk is not teaching in front of an elementary school class. You don't deserve attention just because you showed up. You have to earn it.
If most people are live tweeting or doing other things during your talk, then I guess you didn't earn it. The last people to blame is your audience for that problem. They didn't write your presentation or choose the title of it.
It's like a director blaming the audience for walking out of a movie. We can start a big debate about the culture or how rude that is, but we won't learn anything or solve anything. We're not going to change human nature with an indignant conversation.
What you do have the power to change though is selling your talk properly to the right people, make it engaging, and stop getting distracted by people who frankly aren't distracting unless you're very self conscious. These are deficiencies in your public speaking skills, not a problem with every audience you've encountered.
If most people are live tweeting or doing other things during your talk, then I guess you didn't earn it. The last people to blame is your audience for that problem. They didn't write your presentation or choose the title of it.
It's like a director blaming the audience for walking out of a movie. We can start a big debate about the culture or how rude that is, but we won't learn anything or solve anything. We're not going to change human nature with an indignant conversation.
What you do have the power to change though is selling your talk properly to the right people, make it engaging, and stop getting distracted by people who frankly aren't distracting unless you're very self conscious. These are deficiencies in your public speaking skills, not a problem with every audience you've encountered.