being disrespectful in France and being disrespectful in America

Is it more disrespectful for students not to pay attention because they are surfing the net or g-chatting or students not to pay attention because they are somewhat loudly directly talking to each other during class?

As anyone in law school at SLU knows, if a videographer were to enter a classroom during a lecture he would have to work very hard to find one computer screen where a student was only taking notes. I do this in class; almost everyone I know does it. I move back and forth between surfing the net and taking notes. I know that this is disrespectful to the prof and hurts my ability to learn the material. I didn't do it during first year but since then I can't imagine making it through a class without wi-fi.

Here, however, people just openly talk to each other during class. Sure, they sort of whisper but overall the dynamic is the professor is talking to all of us while there are also at least 2 if not 5 individual conversations going on that every student can hear. They are talking loudly enough that their conversations interfere with understanding even when the prof speaks in English. Of course, it varies from prof to prof but in general, the profs don't say anything. Instead, the profs talk louder and so do the students.

This is probably my own bias but I think that using my laptop in class generally only distracts me but talking loudly in class distracts everyone. I acknowledge that other students can be distracted by me surfing the net in class and that some are. This seems different and more disrespectful.

Any thoughts? I know there are a handful of current and former academics who read this as well as some law students. Just wondering.