I just told a grown man to get headphones

[Globules]

Hotel breakfast. Small room.

A man was on a video call to what sounded like his wife.

He then calls his girlfriend.

All audible to me and the rest of the small breakfast room.

I left quicker than I was going to as his voice was dominating the room. As I left I said

Honestly, please get some headphones. It's much more polite than everyone having to listen to your conversation.

He gawped at me. As in, how dare I. I walked off, as I didn't want an argument, I just wanted him to shut up.

I'm chuffed I said something rather than did the British thing of glaring. So I needed to tell someone 😁

Oh I've asked parents to turn them down before, on more than one occasion.

They've all been ok with it, apart from one woman who sighed aggressively as she did it 😂

It’s actually putting me
off travelling on public transport altogether.

I applaud you 👏👏👏

I wish more people would say something. I’m also one of those people who do. I live in London and am waiting to get stabbed.

This holding a phone like a ‘Kardashian’ and speaking on loud speaker so everyone can hear you is rude, entitled and absolutely not acceptable.

Sadly - it seems to be the norm now (as is listening to videos in public so absolutely everyone else has to listen to it).

It absolutely boils my piss and saddens me how entitled people have become.

These people are insufferable. I have challenged asked politely several of them while on the bus. I actually don't think they realise they are doing it, it is their life and it's normal for them. Everyone I have asked to turn it down has done so. Mind you I start off being red faced and furious to myself, then I let myself calm down, then if it still goes on, I either look at the person, or tap them on the shoulder and point to my ears and mouth the words "it's too loud". To be fair they have all turned it down, but never an apology. That's ok.

There is a way to do it, and thank god I'm older and more decrepit now so I don't lose it as I would when younger. It is one of the most infuriating things though.

I well remember on a long distance train (it wasn't a quiet carriage though) and a woman was absolutely roaring at full volume. I didn't say anything during her call but everyone glared at her to absolutely no effect. I was seeing the red mist, so when she finished I said to her "Thanks so much for sharing all that shite with people who couldn't give a shit about you or your life, button it a bit next time thanks". I don't know which of us was in more shock. But I glided back to my seat heart racing from the adrenalin of saying it. It's not easy tackling them, but sometimes it really has to be done!

I'm proud of you OP!

I was on the tube the other day and put my own headphones in to drown out the noise of a guy watching a TV show without them (I'm definitely not brave enough to confront!).

A young woman got on, who must have been 23/24 at the most, sat down two seats from him, turned around and said "Have you got headphones?" he said yes, so she said "well can you use them then? That's really annoying". And he did!

He would have been the last person I'd have confronted about it as he was in his late teens, early 20s, dressed the way some lads want to look "gangsta", etc.

I was very much bordering on being super impressed with her confidence to say something at the point she got ON the train, rather than off, and being very concerned that she might end up in trouble one day if she does it to the wrong person.

A shame you couldn't dob him into his wife somehow,

I did this a while back on a train, at the start of an almost 2 hour journey. They were playing Imagine Dragons SO FUCKING LOUD so I stood up & asked for it to be turned down since it was drowning out the music in my earphones. Got called rude for doing it & told they'd shove it up my arse 🙄 (answered with a cheery "yes, please"), but the music went down. Because overpowering everyone's music with yours isn't rude 🤷‍♀️.

I do enjoy commenting on other people's phone conversations loudly though...

I disagree that you're not a twat.

I'm not sure why the conversation has turned to blind people?

Even if he was blind, he doesn't have to video call his wife and girlfriend in the middle of the hotel dining room.

That's what his private room is for.

This exact thing happened to me recently. I was so invested. Somebody had run off and got married in secret and all family hell had broken loose. Bloody woman got off the train right at a very important part and I was so pissed off 🤣

I was on holiday last month and the couple in front of us on the plane, were watching a film without headphones.
They were front seats so visibly and audibly obvious to the crew but they said nothing. I don't know if this was because they were chatting to the crew, who were sat facing them, before and during take off about how they just got engaged and the proposal and so on.

I wish I was like you op and able to speak up as it is so irritating and rude.

That person wasn't visually impaired, just obnoxious.

Someone else had a story about how they'd told someone off for not using headphones, but it turned out they were blind and using a screen reader (just a mistake!). But some individuals maintain the blind person, who may rely on his hearing to navigate the world, should be using headphones because they don't want to hear screen readers.

That I am a twat is definitely the conclusion everyone will draw from this exchange.

I don’t get it. If it was a screen reader then why did he need to have it at full volume instead of headphones. Being blind doesn’t exclude good manners.

Because he relies on senses other than sight, such as hearing, to navigate the world.

Headphones interfere with this, and may render him unsafe. No one said it was at full volume.

Still didn't need to be so loud for someone to mention it to him though

Thanks for explaining @shrodingersvaccine

My ignorance forgot how much blind people rely on their hearing.

I turned around and told a young man off for his loud mobile convo’ on the bus one time.

He apologised, so it was worth doing. For sure I’d do it again.

Good. Selfish twat.

I always assumed it was since the advent of TikTok? And kids wanting to play videos together? And now everyone thinks "if they're doing it, so shall I"

The worst is hospital wards.

You are correct, and... it's also a matter of undue burden of a disabled person who already faces the double burden of a) being disabled and b) having to self-advocate all the time to get reasonable adjustments. If I decide that I don't fancy taking headphones today, or I lose them, or they break, I can choose to browse silently or use an app with the sound turned off. A vision-impaired person cannot and, with so much information (e.g. bus times) being presented online or through an app, they would be cut off from information that they have no other way of accessing if they broke, lost, forgot, or didn't have bag room for headphones and didn't use the screenreader out of fear or causing offence.

Having said all that, it's good manners to take calls away from the dining table so I concur with OP about the man she posted about.

I did this in our large open plan office once - I somehow didn’t notice that my Bluetooth headphones hadn’t connected. Fortunately I was only listening to classical music.

I've had to start getting public transport (bus) to work again after a while and the amount of people who think it's ok to listen to music/videos without headphones is astonishing. Winds me up no end. It's hell. Wish there were signs up.

A young girl got on and started watching music videos, it was 6.40am. I debated whether to say anything as my rage got bigger but decided I couldn't be bothered with the aggro before a shift (which is also full of aggro!). What's wrong with these people?!

id love to have the balls to do this, but what if someone turns around and tells you to fuck off? Then doesn’t turn it down.