AIBU to think playing things on your phone speaker with no headphones on public transport should be banned

[Lorenta]

Quite often when I've been on busy buses, there's been someone playing a TV programme out loud on their phone speaker, or they've been having a loud video call with no headphones.

I find this so annoying! Aaaa!

AIBU to think that this shouldn't be tolerated on public transport?

I'm on a bus right now, and the sound is blaring out into the whole bus! This has happened often.

@OpalOrchid

It absolutely does NOT blend in! What an odd thing to say.........

There was a woman on the bus today having a really loud conversation on speaker phone and she was 4 seats in front of us we could hear every word. I was so tempted to join in.

Excellent.

I also think twice about saying something for this reason!

Today I asked the guy using his phone speakers if he wouldn't mind using headphones. He stopped, but then gave me an angry glare as he left 😐

There are a lot of people who don't give a damn about other people. They want to listen to their phones, or their music, and what the rest of us might want doesn't even enter their heads.

Can I also add headphones are supposed to be so that other people cant hear what youre listening to. Loads of people have headphones only very slightly quieter than having the thing on speaker.
I'm often moving seats on the train because I can't bear the second hand noise from someone's headphones - I can't imagine the assault on their ear drums! 😳

I have reached the oerimenopausal age of giving no quarter. Even as a young woman I would ask people to turn down music I could hear through their headphones. These days I just start joining in. Commenting on what they are saying, or the music, singing along.
I am tone deaf. I also look like a little grey haired old lady, with my walking stick. I generally embarrass them into shutting up.

I imagine the 2% of people that disagree are the people that do watch videos without headphones or give their toddler an episode of peppa pig to watch on a crowded commuter train (although Peppa pig is marginally more palatable than some of the shit people are watching/listening to)

Drives me mad! On the one occasion that I actually witnessed someone objecting,a really nasty argument ensued,which ended up with the bus driver having to intervene. So it's hardly surprising that people don't want to challenge these brainless morons.

I like listening to other peoples phone calls. I've nearly missed my stop before if it's been a particularly interesting phone call.

🤣 Thats funny.

I don’t mind people having it on low volume without headphones, I don’t find it any worse than people chatting face to face.

Agree. It should be banned and you should be able to smack them on the side of the head for doing it

I've started this same thread previously. I just cannot tolerate it. I start with the glare and if that doesn't work, I very firmly ask them to turn it down. I will move rather than listen to this shit if I'm not in the mood for confrontation. I've only had it once on a plane and when it's children and they use that as an excuse I point out that my autistic child can use headphones and have respect for others and there is no excuse. I'm sure I have misiphonia as I genuinely can't tolerate it.

You can blame Apple for this, they were the first to get rid of the headphone jack so you could only use expensive, easy to lose Airpods and not a cheapy corded set. not true. You can still by wired headphones with a lightening or USBC jack depending on which phone model you have. The only time you can’t use wired headphones is if you have the phone plugged into a charger.

YANBU. This gives me the rage too, OP.

I was on a train yesterday and a young woman, perhaps late 20s, was playing Duolingo with the volume up. I was down the carriage from her and could hear every sentence it spoke and every bloody "ba-ding" that phone was making.

I was so happy I was only going one stop so had to ensure it for just 6 minutes. I felt sorry for anyone travelling all the way to her destination with her. I am also happy I wear hearing aids so I permanently have the means to effectively mute my surroundings, with or without music.

You can charge your iPhone and use headphones at the same time. Amazon has 2 in 1 adapters for about a fiver.

There’s a man who comes into the shop where I work on a Saturday who has his music blasting out with no headphones. I refuse to serve him until he turns it off. He used to stand and point at what he wanted while singing along to his music. How bloody rude.

Exactly this. Its a few years since DH was in hospital having to endure the entitled moron in the next bed watching TV without headphones. Staff didn’t intervene, nor did they point out that he shouldn’t have hordes of visitors bringing smelly takeaways.

And lets not even mention the ‘quiet’ coach on long distance train journeys!

ive noticed people relentlessly FaceTiming on loud speaker on trains in east London. When it happens I’ve started humming or singing and they usually end their FaceTime. You have to be more annoying and inappropriate so they get weirded out rather than directly challenge.

It's not just on transport.
I was in the library the other day and a man started watching a football match on his laptop. The sound of the cheering crowd could be heard all around.
A librarian asked him to turn it down or put on headphones. He took umbrage at her request and asked to speak to the manager 🤷‍♀️

I was on the top deck of a bus the other day with someone who had actually brought an extra speaker to amplify their music!
People letting their phone noise intrude into public spaces (music, a phone call on speaker, constant notification beeps) drives me mad - perhaps mainly because it's so rude - but agree with others that there's a limit to how much these things can be policed.

This is my pet hate. I have a threads account where all I do is moan about people on the bus.
The other day there were 6 of us. 4 'others', teen DS and me. DS has his earphones in, music quiet enough that he can hear me talking. 1 man had his earphones, either they were so crap I could hear his music pretty much full volume, or his music was too loud.
The other 3 all had music/Videos playing and. It was hell.

I can't wear headphones/buds of any description ATM because of recurring ear infections.

When did this become the norm, though? When it was possible to take your tiny tv around with you? Or was there a societal shift, in which individual wants override other people's, and you don't expect to be challenged on it?

I'm on a train now, three seats ahead of a young woman who is busily and loudly checking up on her hungover boyfriend. 'Have you drunk some water? Have you eaten some carbs? Did you hand in that coursework for your Travel and Tourism? You know what you're like...' etc etc. I wonder if he knows his shortcomings are being broadcast to a captive audience. She certainly doesn't mind sharing some of his more private moments...

It really isn’t the same thing:

a) the high pitched register of audio from phones is much more intrusive than ambient noise. Almost impossible to ignore.
b) it’s the presumption. The arrogance of thinking “I am going to inflict my noise on everyone in earshot without giving any thought to their needs and I don’t give a tinkers cuss who it annoys…”

I don’t think banning it is workable I just think society needs to make it as unacceptable as smoking was before it was banned.

I find it breathtaking that anyone over the age of about 10 could fail to realise how antisocial and aggressive it it.

How could anyone not have been bollocked by their parents for doing this? In what universe do people go out in the world not understanding what a selfish and twattish thing it is to do?

@AuntiePathy

When did this become the norm, though? When it was possible to take your tiny tv around with you? Or was there a societal shift, in which individual wants override other people's, and you don't expect to be challenged on it?

I have wondered about this and I think in part the issue is we are now into the second generation of universal smartphone use.

If smartphones had been around in the 1990s kids’ parents would have given them a dressing down for doing this. My parents would have torn me a new one even for doing this at home, let alone in a public space.

Nowadays you have teens whose parents were teens in the early to mid 00s for whom smartphones are just part of life and it wouldn’t occur to some of them to see this as unusual or antisocial.

Face timing in public - just why?

I'd be more inclined to throw the person out the window...
...while it was still moving...
(to eliminate all doubt, this was a lighthearted comment)