If you use your phone on loudspeaker when in public, can I ask why?

[Eastie77Returns]

I’m genuinely interested in understanding the mindset behind people who do this.

Yesterday on a packed train I stood next to a woman who conducted multiple calls on loudspeaker over the course of about 20 minutes.

The entire carriage got to hear her conversation with someone about an appointment to treat a Verrucah, problems with the cat, Gary’s laziness as he hasn’t moved the barrels yet and they’ve been there since yesterday…and various other things. She was shouting as the line was bad, redialling when the phone cut out and bellowing “I’m on a TRAIN…I keep cutting out when I go under a TUNNEL..can you HEAR me”

I find the whole thing beyond baffling. Why would you want strangers to hear your business. So, if you make or answer calls and go on loudspeaker when you’re on public transport is there a specific reason you do this?

I somehow manage to disconnect calls whilst holding the phone to my ear, that's why I use the speaker. Generally not in public though.

I do t use public transport but still se it everywhere.

In supermarkets. The street. Leisure centre.

I also find it weird and get if you're hard of hearing but I know for a fact statistically it's a lot less people who are than do it!

Yes I think it is different, people speak more loudly, enunciate differently, and it is much more intrusive.

That’s really interesting! It does make sense - a year or so ago I was in a carpet shop and couldn’t work out why someone was having a discussion (about something unrelated to carpet) with her phone held like this. I could figure out that she was younger and cooler than me but this answers the question of why it’s a trend!

See also: nude bodycon activewear 😂😂

I use the loudspeaker because my phone is crap and I can’t have a conversation otherwise.
But because of that, I wouldn’t use it in a train unless I had no choice (eg urgent phone call or organising pick up).
I do use it out and about in the street etc…

But generally, if two people are sat next to each other and talking they are not usually shouting and it’s a bit easier to tune out.

The phone loudspeaker conversations tend to be interspersed with the two people talking over each other, since they are not face to face and can’t read cues, speaking loudly and repeating themselves due to the phone cutting out, poor reception etc.

1. If it's music, put your own music on right next to them and say woo it's a party!!
2. If it's a phonecall, I'd be tempted to join in, ' yeah verrucas, bloody painful!'

But I do quite like transgressing politeness boundaries when someone is transgressing them first. Give as good as I get to the morons.

Does it include people who have a crap phone so they have no choice but to use the loud speaker? Incl those who can’t afford to replace said phone?

Threads on this subject are a regular feature on MN. Depending on the thread you have a more or less big group of people falling into that category.
And still people assume you’re just a ‘bellend’ or ‘it’s to look cool like xyz’ etc…
In the middle if the CoL crisis, it’d be nice to realise not everyone can replace a broken phone.
Same with people who have hearing issues etc…

Do those people with crap phones have to have said loud speaker call on public transport, in the pub, down the supermarket, in the vicinity of others who might not want to be party to their conversation?

On the rare occasions I have to call someone (not on loud speaker!) when I’m on public transport, I speak as quietly as possible. I feel weirdly embarrassed about being overheard even if it’s a completely innocuous call.

I always feel quietly mortified on behalf of someone talking loudly on the phone in an otherwise quiet train carriage.

The point is lack of choice though.

You might not want to hear the conversation but they have no choice about it.
Just like I’ve heard people on the street answering calls from their GP. No choice when they dint give you a time when they’ll call and you still have stuff to do! I’m sure they’d rather have a more private conversation.

Given some of the banal (and anal) conversations I really don't understand why people feel the need to have them in public.

Well, actually, I do... a general lack of awareness at best. A general lack of consideration at worst. As for the brain-dead who womble around the pavements bellowing away to their equally half witted pals with no sense of awareness 🙄

I’m deaf in one ear too. So I…. Hold the phone to my good ear?

It's attention seeking. 100%.

I was on a train yesterday sitting near a group of people, and one bloke was telling them, in a voice that must have easily reached the far end of the carriage, how he’d been on a plane recently & made it his business to tell everyone whether they were dressed appropriately.

I didn’t get any more than that because I went into the next carriage to get away from the racket.

Usually, though, people on loudspeaker or playing something without headphones are most annoying, followed by people making normal phone calls.

I have done when remotely when on a walk and taking a call as it is easier especially a Teams call where you may need to see a screen, but no one else can hear me. Not otherwise.

You should have intervened, and pointed out that hearing personal business puts her at risk. Say of being followed, for example. Expressing it as you are doing her a favour by pointing it out.

I fucking HATE anyone who makes or takes extended phone calls on trains. I hate them. Just stand in the bit between carriages if your calls are so urgent and protracted (fine if caught on the hop and you need to take a quick call or etc). But these long tedious calls. Ug. so entitled and rude, and spoils everyone else’s journeys (I read or maybe work on the train, or I just want to sit in silence). I call people out, but they are usually so self obsessed that they think it’s their right. Almost everyone who makes these fucking boring long calls either works in media, management, or IT as far as I can gauge.

I’m deaf so I find using loudspeaker makes it easier for me to hear the person through the phone. However….i wouldn’t use my phone in a public place anyway

Tbh hoping to sit in silence on public transport is being naive…..

For those hard of hearing ( like myself ) , if you have Bluetooth enabled hearing aids they’ve been able to pair with mobile phones for a while now, particularly Apple, Android is catching up.

People are polarised. You either realise it’s really bad manners, or manners in this regard are not important to you at all. The only way to stop it is an increase in public guidance and laws, which won’t happen as that’s nanny state territory, so we’re stuffed and it’ll only get worse. It’s infuriating.

You are right, they say depression is caused by reality not matching up to your expectations. So, I sit in silence, out of consideration for others. Course, I’d like to have a nice chat with Gary or Libby too, but I don’t. So I think they shouldn’t either. Hence: disappointment, anger, despair

I’m always finding it interesting how people can’t stand other people taking a phone call.

But there is never any issue with hen/stag do in trains, making a hell of a lot more noise (and drinking at 8.00am going to down the London to ‘ave fun’). Or those who are drunk and loud/obnoxious (they’re just having fun - why are you using that train when you know they are likely to have loads of drunk people anyway?).

But people on the phone? And children? Clearly none if that is ever acceptable

It’s not the need for silence, it’s the fact that our brains can’t process the electronic sounds comfortably, particularly if we’re not listening to them for ourselves, just hearing that tinny noise nearby.