Cell Phone Audio in Public

[THX1123]

Have you ever thought that some/many of the folks that you think are "too loud" on their cell phone are just hard of hearing?
Didn't think so.

I have, yes. I've also thought that headphones, earbuds, and hearing aids exist.

I've also thought that hard-of-hearing people speaking on phones isn't what my rant was concerned with.

Are slot machine phone games dependent on volume? That lady had no problem hearing them call her name at the tire place.

 

[omahaaudio]

I have, yes. I've also thought that headphones, earbuds, and hearing aids exist.

If you would like to continually plug and unplug some earbubs whenever you smartphone rings, be my guest.

 

[radtz]

I've noticed that some modern people are oblivious to (or unconcerned with) the leakage from watching videos or games on their phones in public places. It doesn't seem to be entirely related to the age of the person, except that many people under 25 seem to be using airpods or other bluetooth earphones instead of just subjecting everyone to their nonsense. It seems to be kids and people 35 and older who are the worst offenders.

The ultra-midrange that phones use cuts through everything and can travel a great distance. I clearly heard someone's phone this week from at least 150 feet away - and we were outside.

I was at the Tire Center waiting for tires last week. And older lady (late 60s) had some obnoxious slot-machine gambling game thing blasting. After she left an older man (Late 70s) was watching chainsaw videos and tree-chopping videos at a high volume as well. CHAIN SAW VIDEOS.

Today at a restaurant some guy was watching a sports podcast or youtube show of some kind. Myself and everyone else there could pick out every word, and there was conversation and a couple TVs on at low volume in the place.

Some boy next to me last month at the DMV was watching a gamer streaming and the amount of profanity he was broadcasting to young kids and senior citizens in the place was mind-boggling. I stopped reading and leaned over and watched his phone, hoping it would make him uncomfortable. He didn't even notice. I never saw his parents.

I find this rude. Sometimes I fantasize about finding a video of nails on a blackboard, or drowning cats, or Melt Banana, or police sirens and playing that at full volume on my phone next to people who do this just to see if they ask me to stop.

Questions:

Do you find it rude? Is this is just how things are now going forward, or is it just a trend? Have people finally and completely lost the plot when it comes to how even these small actions adversely affect others?

Caveats: People used to carry little transistor radios when I was a boy. Then people carried boomboxes around for a while - until the Walkman got popular. But they were listening to music on boomboxes, not talk shows or slot machines. Many people who used little transistor radios back in the day had mono earplugs. Then there were those digital Walkie-Talkie phones that made a super-loud bleeping sound that people used about 15 years ago. Thank the maker those obnoxious things are mostly gone.

I remember doing this to people using my boombox back in the day. It was OK because I listening way cooler music then they did. I used to have a motorcycle with a stereo in the fairing. Everyone was subjected to my good taste in music.

 

[THX1123]

We hates it, Precious, we do! Especially folks who put their speakerphones on in already noisy public places like diners. Ugh.

If you would like to continually plug and unplug some earbubs whenever you smartphone rings, be my guest.

Well, they do continue to work for taking calls. I believe you can even get Bluetooth hearing aids that pair with your device.

This isn't exactly about the technology. It is about people not caring, or being aware that their actions and desires affect others around them.

 

[BigDaddyLH]

I remember when people laughed at the very idea that anyone would ever walk around with earbuds, talking on a cell phone. "You'd look like such an idiot! Gesticulating and talking to no one! Who would be that self-absorbed?"

 

[Kandinskyesque]

AKA Sodcasting which is one reason why I wear noise cancelling headphones in crowded/busy places.
Before that it was a Walkman for me. I've got sensory issues, so the inventor Bob Walkman is a hero of mine.

Now all I need is to find a non-violent way of stopping folk sticking a screen in front of my face in their solipsistic delusion that I'm interested in the video or social media post that amuses them.

Yes, Davy from the 12-step group, I DO mean you!!!
We might support the same football team, but I'm genuinely not interested in your YouTube finds of Celtic's 10 greatest ever corner kicks, the fish you caught, your nephew's new wheels nor your witty reply on Twatter.
I do believe I've already told you more than once and I'm serious about you requiring a Proctologist to charge your phone, the next time.

 

[THX1123]

We hates it, Precious, we do! Especially folks who put their speakerphones on in already noisy public places like diners. Ugh.

I've been to Vestal. Lotsa times. My Mom lived in Johnson City before she died in a diner from a noise infection (actually it was cancer, re: cancer valley).

I suggest the culture and experience is somewhat different to rural North Carolina. It is less redneck here heh heh

 

[archetype]

i don't care outside, or on a train platform, or in a mall/big store, etc. or something like that where there noise floor is high.

but yeah, not a good thing for a restaurant, or a store, or a train car, or whatever.

and yeah, like you said, i notice it's often 35+ folks who seem to have no awareness of their surroundings when it comes to phones.

I'm sure I'm in the category of old guy, but am still conciencious about context and my affect on others. That said...

I can tell you that as my peers age they decline in their ability to understand their situation or context in relation to others. As they age, lots of folks become increasingly oblivious to the people around them. They stop walking if they need to say something. They're a stationary roadblock in the grocery aisle. Even if they hear quite well, they talk on the phone like they were trying to overcome the vacuum of space.

 

[bholder]

Well, they do continue to work for taking calls. I believe you can even get Bluetooth hearing aids that pair with your device.

This isn't exactly about the technology. It is about people not caring, or being aware that their actions and desires affect others around them.

Exactly! It's about awareness of and respect for others, not the tech. Sadly, tech has no cure for people being inconsiderate jerks.

 

[bholder]

It is less redneck here heh heh

This is quite probably true. Though I've always said, I can't move south, 'cause my (darned) mouth would get me killed... ...it's bad enough here...

 

[loopfinding]

I'm sure I'm in the category of old guy, but am still conciencious about context and my affect on others. That said...

I can tell you that as my peers age they decline in their ability to understand their situation or context in relation to others. As they age, lots of folks become increasingly oblivious to the people around them. They stop walking if they need to say something. They're a stationary roadblock in the grocery aisle. Even if they hear quite well, they talk on the phone like they were trying to overcome the vacuum of space.

Yeah I notice this with my aging parents. They’ll give us flak for having our phones out at the dinner table (even though we’re conversing and checking at the same time). But then if you’re having a conversation with them and a text or email comes in, the conversation immediately halts mid-sentence and they spend 15 minutes diving to their phone.

 

[old soul]

Had an uber passenger talking swahili on speaker phone with someone smacking food terribly.....not a fun ride

 

[archetype]

Had an uber passenger talking swahili on speaker phone with someone smacking food terribly.....not a fun ride

There should be some kind of mandatory sentence for eating while you talk on the phone. Chew while you talk and you should end up with other guys in orange jumpsuits, picking up trash by the highway.

 

[Nogoodnamesleft]

Annoying but it makes a lot of them look like fools. When some big guy's phone rings and he has to let it keep ringing while he is apparently thinking about whether or not to answer and ring tone is "Coz I am your laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeddaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy..." I can only assume it's his lovely wife.

 

[imwjl]

That's good advice.

It's too bad so many solutions often involve buying and using coping technology, or avoiding places and spaces I used to enjoy.

I'm a late age parent, and I work where a significant percentage of staff are younger so that probably influences my perspective. So does doing volunteer and community stuff. From that I think we don't have as many modern problems or differences as people think. We have to manage our cognitive biases and remember there has always been some amount of poor behavior.

If the choice was to go back to so much smoking in public space I'd say bring on more phone conversation noise.

With 3 kids on college campus my visits to exact same haunts plus that point on the age of staff I work with, I can even think we have more polite and considerate younger people. A lot of time when I see examples of poor control it's the whole person - not just phone etiquette, but people who are also inconsiderate drivers, inconsiderate in lines, and poorly disciplined such as so many who are no longer fit or dressed well. I try to minimize how much it bothers me.

The NC earbuds point is related or unrelated. They are or at least what I've had are just plain fantastic stuff. The music experience is fantastic and they help me block out stuff to have better concentration for work. One set - my AirPods Pro - are also very effective as hearing aids.

 

[Chipss36]

 

[Hey_you]

I am seen without a phone very often. And, it usually is off while at home. Yeah, I'm that old. Majority of calls are from Unknown. Got one from Alaska area code yesterday.

 

[THX1123]

I'm a late age parent, and I work where a significant percentage of staff are younger so that probably influences my perspective. So does doing volunteer and community stuff. From that I think we don't have as many modern problems or differences as people think. We have to manage our cognitive biases and remember there has always been some amount of poor behavior.

If the choice was to go back to so much smoking in public space I'd say bring on more phone conversation noise.

With 3 kids on college campus my visits to exact same haunts plus that point on the age of staff I work with, I can even think we have more polite and considerate younger people. A lot of time when I see examples of poor control it's the whole person - not just phone etiquette, but people who are also inconsiderate drivers, inconsiderate in lines, and poorly disciplined such as so many who are no longer fit or dressed well. I try to minimize how much it bothers me.

The NC earbuds point is related or unrelated. They are or at least what I've had are just plain fantastic stuff. The music experience is fantastic and they help me block out stuff to have better concentration for work. One set - my AirPods Pro - are also very effective as hearing aids.

It isn't so much phone conversations. There's always been loud people in public places. It's the media/videos, specifically, that I ranted about. Also, I work at a University. I do agree with most of your points.

I interact with many polite and respectful students. I get called "Sir" frequently. Students here make eye contact, hold doors, and generally respect others.

That said, I saw students cheating on exams with their phones in the bathroom all this week. It literally just happened again. Either they are cheating, or they just like to go into the bathroom, loiter furtively, not use the toilet or sink, and look random things up in stinky bathrooms instead of out in the hallways, or in lecture. They are quite respectful and considerate - except for the fact that they don't realize or care that they are literally pointing their phones (cameras) at me and others in a bathroom.

Imagine some rando pointing a camera at you while you used the bathroom in 1985. Or 1995. Imagine it today, say in a truckstop on I-75. I suggest someone might get their butts kicked.

I truly hope those persons do not become Pharmacists or Doctors. If you need to cheat on a 200 level mid-term then you are failing as a student and an adult. I imagine I could be disciplined (or worse) if I confronted the wrong student for cheating, or for literally pointing a camera at people in a bathroom.

Whatever bias I may have (or that I may be unaware of) means very little when another person has no awareness or concern how their actions affect others.

 

[BigDaddyLH]

It isn't so much phone conversations. There's always been loud people in public places. It's the media/videos, specifically, that I ranted about. Also, I work at a University. I do agree with most of your points.

I interact with many polite and respectful students. I get called "Sir" frequently. Students here make eye contact, hold doors, and generally respect others.

That said, I saw students cheating on exams with their phones in the bathroom all this week. It literally just happened again. Either they are cheating, or they just like to go into the bathroom, loiter furtively, not use the toilet or sink, and look random things up in stinky bathrooms instead of out in the hallways, or in lecture. They are quite respectful and considerate - except for the fact that they don't realize or care that they are literally pointing their phones (cameras) at me and others in a bathroom.

Imagine some rando pointing a camera at you while you used the bathroom in 1985. Or 1995. Imagine it today, say in a truckstop on I-75. I suggest someone might get their butts kicked.

I truly hope those persons do not become Pharmacists or Doctors. If you need to cheat on a 200 level mid-term then you are failing as a student and an adult. I imagine I could be disciplined (or worse) if I confronted the wrong student for cheating, or for literally pointing a camera at people in a bathroom.

Whatever bias I may have (or that I may be unaware of) means very little when another person has no awareness or concern how their actions affect others.

Meanwhile ... in the Philippines ...

 

[blowtorch]

it is one of my pettest of peeves

really any racket* just makes me want to moidalize someone

why does that drummer have to bang away in between songs?

(*that I'm not making, of course)