self delete

[Joe Fields]

[Haole Girl]

1. IMHO...

multitasking is not rude.

However, not saying good-bye & just walking away from an online chat, for 30 or 40 minutes before saying good-bye, is rude.

[petronius]

2. If the person knows that it bothers you and does it anyway, it's rude

Otherwise I could go either way - I frequently have casual conversations where one or both parties is doing something else, but if I detect any hint that the other person wants more of my focus then I either put down what I'm doing or delay/end the chat. (For example, my wife just popped into the room while I was typing this for a non-essential chat; because I know she prefers focus I took my hands off the keyboard.)

Generally if I view a conversation as casual I feel comfortable performing other tasks and I wouldn't assume the other person is bothered unless they said so. But on the other other hand, I typically don't take it to distraction.

If I were you I'd simply mention it to the person: "Look, if you're distracted, we can finish this another time. It's no difficulty..."