Go waiting rooms and phone

[MrsBrentford]

Went for my 10 yearly outing to the GP today.

Put my phone on silent unlike everyone else who seemed to all be in a group chat, phones going off constantly and one women walked in deep in conversation on her phone and continued to have a deeply personal conversation to the awkward sideways glances of about 25 people in the waiting room.

Another women kept going out of the waiting room and into the corridor outside the doctors actual surgeries so I could hear her while I was in with him meaning she could potentially hear me.

Another child on an iPad blaring out Peppa Pig wtf is wrong with people - I managed to take all three of my kids occupied at the doctors before the advent of tablets.

I wouldn't expect funereal silence in a GP's waiting room. You sound a bit pearl clutch-y.

I did my best at that point. I sat furthest away and had it on very quiet. It was either quiet Peppa Pig or bored, stroppy toddler and I was feeling so unwell (I needed nebs) I did what I had to do to cope.

Nah, some of us still like to use manners - old fashioned concept I know

Who decided it was bad manners to have a phone conversation in a waiting room? How is it any different than people conversing with other people in the room? Why is a phone beeping bad manners? It’s a waiting room not a bloody library.

How is it any different than people conversing with other people in the room?

People tend to speak louder on the phone.

But apparently the reason why it’s hard to tune out a mobile phone conversation is because you can only hear half of what’s going on, and your brain is busy trying to fill in the gaps.

Well, here on this thread is your answer, MrsBrentford!
Apparently, lots of people today are just plain selfish. It would appear that a fair few people don't give a shit about consideration for others and will continue to do what the fuck they like regardless.

because you can only hear half of what’s going on, and your brain is busy trying to fill in the gaps.

So basically an affliction of the nosey.

I wouldn’t expect funeral silence, I remember people used to smoke in the waiting room when I was a kid - it’s just being considerate isn’t it?

I agree with the op.
It is often a working environment.
I can assure you the staff do not want to be bombarded with constant noise.

I think it's rude to ever expose others to electronic noises. It's fine to keep occupied on phones etc. but if you have the volume up (at all) you should have head phones.

So basically an affliction of the nosey.

The human brain is inherently ‘nosey’. It’s always trying to figure things out, make connections, know what’s going on.

People are concentrating on the use of tablets because they feel there is justification whereas actually the biggest issue is people’s lack of consideration when it comes to mobile phones.

There seems to be a rule that you shout as loudly as possible when talking to the other person, if possible you put the caller on speakerphone (no need to hold the phone up to your ear, use headphones with a mike, all phones come with them included,) and have your most personal conversations in as public a place as possible. And let’s not forget the people who walk down the street texting to the point they don’t look where they’re going. The amount of people who have tutted at me because I was in their way and they didn’t see me until the last minute or worse, backing into people because they’re texting and walking backwards at the same time is phenomenal.

I also know someone who was hit by a car recently and fairly badly hurt because they were walking across the road while texting. The car driver will undoubtedly have to live with the trauma of having hit someone when that someone’s own stupidity led it to happen.

Recently I spent time in hospital and I lost count of the people who used to talk to family and friends not only on speaker phone, but even on FaceTime. And the incident which sticks out is a patient who was in the bed opposite me, he spent three days talking to as many people as he could, showing off his surgery sight etc etc on FaceTime and having conversations the whole ward could hear. Then, two days after I was moved further down to a different ward, he was being discharged that day and he walked down the ward on his mobile phone and I heard him say distinctly “well, it was the bloke in the bed opposite. Yeah well he died didn’t he!” I knew that a patient had died on the ward that morning, but really did he he need to shout it across the ward? The family etc could still have been there....

From the other side though it’s amusing to hear some people’s conversations sometimes. And let’s not forget the people who pay for transactions over the phone “yes, well my credit card number is.... and the expiry date is..... and the security digits are.....” .

When swine flu was around just over 10 years ago, a lot of GP surgeries removed their stack of waiting room toys and never put them back. I am sure most people in doctors waiting room will just be glad the kids are quiet.

I've no idea why parents buy a £500 iPad then won't spend £20 or less on headphones. It's not being on the tablet that's a problem, it's the noise. My kids are not so old that screens/phones tablets were not available when they were little but we always had headphones for them or turned the sound off.

Yes, as PP said, why do some people speak on speaker phone in public?? So annoying! Why??

Its not a binary choice of zombifying your kids with tech or have them running around screaming. There are other states of being. If you 'have to' play peppa pig then at least put some headphones on the kid.