To ask why people insist on making calls using speakerphone when in a public place?

[auserna]

I mean aside from the obvious fact that it's highly irritating and inconsiderate to those around you, I don't understand the benefit. The sound is tinny, unpleasant and distorted, and you have to wave it in front of your face instead of simply holding it to your ear as we have done since Alexander Graham Bell were a lad.

I can see the point if you're at home, say cooking, and you pop it down on the worktop, or you're having a family chat with multiple people looking at the phone at the same time, but people on their own - on the bus, for example - I just don't get it.

I also hate it when other people put me on speakerphone - I find the resulting quality of sound uncomfortably unpleasant.

I'm in Italy at the moment and it's every bit as bad here.

Please explain, as it might help me to find it less annoying.

Do you ever consider not making/taking calls in a public space?

I think you'll find it's because people want to mind their own business that they don't want to hear your detritus to whomsoever

I have my phone on loudspeak but I always warn people who I am speaking to.If I am on train or in shop etc I decline a call.If out dog walking I cannot see the problem TBH .

move away then. problem solved for you.

Depends what im doing obviously.

Not a surprising answer from someone who seems to only care about themselves

For many questions like this, the answer is simple. Some people are arseholes.

Why do people talk in a theatre?
Why do people use phones in cinema?
Play music loudly on the bus
Talk on speaker phones
Speed through villages
Let their dogs bark

Etc etc

The answer is simple. They are complete and utter dickheads

Other people would like to mind their own business and not have someone else’s chat blathering on. 😂Presumably you don’t mind if people near you are talking to each other and the person you’re talking to therefore can’t hear you clearly because of the background noise you’ll be picking up?

I don't do it in public as I am busy doing whatever it is I am doing in public..

But I never put my phone to my ear, its horribly uncomfortable and my ear presses buttons.

If I need to talk to someone when I am in public, i send them a whatsapp/fb message.

For all those irritated by it though - in what way is it different to two people holding a conversation in public? Asides from the fact only one of them is physically present?

I've seen this argument before, if you genuinely can't see/hear the difference between two humans having a conversation and a disembodied electronic tinny voice sound you may need to visit an audiologist

If someone does this in public, my thoughts are:

-Rude twat
-They are hard of hearing
-They don't know how to turn the speaker off
-They are worried about getting cancer if their head is near the phone 🤷‍♀️

Because they are dickheads. Simple as that.

Because they want everyone to hear them telling their bestie that a tin of beans in the Co-op is only 65p.

The speakerphone mode uses the same speaker, it doesnt seem possible for it to be broken and only be able to use the speakerphone. That would be a software glitch, fixable with a reset.

You seem incapable of taking your own advice on a forum you have to seek out and repeatedly read conversations you don't like or want to hear.

A level of embarrassing hypocrisy that seems about right, for the sort of person you are generally showing yourself to be seperate to this amusing fact.

I was on the train this morning in a carriage with a woman having an annoying face time convo. The reception is patchy along our line, and usually cuts out a several times within a 40 min journey. Every station she told the person, loudly, "I'm at <insert station> and reception is really bad"...but unfortunately she persisted with the call.
I find it really annoying.
Once I heard the person on the other end of a call ask if they were on speaker phone and sounded quite embarrassed and tried to wind up the call, but the other passenger just kept talking!

wtf should other people move because you’re being an inconsiderate oik? And of course it’s not always possible to move - it’s those circumstances (especially public transport) which are particularly antisocial.

I agree. It's a very different sound quality. The same as hearing music or video reels played from a phone. It's only bearable for the person holding the phone. For everyone else it's intensely irritating.

It's not the same as just having some ambient music, TV, or normal conversation burbling away in the background. There is a horrible, tinny, hissy, jarring and intrusive quality and the noise really carries.

People often talk a LOT louder on phones than when sat next to each other. It's an irritating sound unlike a human voice in the same room as you.

I was on a ferry recently and a young woman about 20metres away from me was having a very loud conversation whinging about some bloke to her friend, everyone could hear her. The family of four 2 tables away playing cards, I could hardly hear at all, because they were considerate people.

Because im not the one with a problem, if someone has a problem with me on the phone then they can move.

This drives me nuts.

I used to loudly ask why they are not using headphones, but this wasn’t very effective at shutting them up.

My current strategy when someone does this on the train is to record snippets and then play it back, loud. This is effective, and usually results in a lot of giggling from other irritated people in the carriage.

(Seriously: no one wants to listen to other people’s phone calls / videos / music. Just use headphones!)

No, I dont have a problem with it.

If you don't have a problem, you don't care that others have a problem. Caring or commenting on others having this problem, is you having a problem with them doing, thinking, or saying that.

Oh well. Dont let it ruin your day.

Because they are rude and have no manners.

Also some people see it the same as talking to a person next to you.