Mobile phones

Yes you could have a word, but not everyone is reasonable and you can't possibly know if you'll get an abusive response that maybe will spoil the day. I agree it is rude and ridiculous.

petra

Some might have noticed ( on here) that I can sometimes 😂 be a tad sarcastic.
I would have been very tempted to say to her ^could you turn it up a bit luv, I missed that last bit^

Ha Ha Petra . Love it.

It's a trend that's been going on for a long time - I don't mean only the loud two-way conversations on mobiles (which in fact is not restricted to the younger generation).

I call it individualism - I think we are beginning to see the end results of our individualistic society, where collective responsibility matters less and less, and any talk of the common good and social co-operation is seen as some kind of "wokery" nonsense. "No-one's-going-to-tell-me-what-I-can-or-can't-do" is a variant of the type of comment that popped up regularly during the beginning of the pandemic, when the government was feeling its way around the public-health problem.

Any curtailment of activity was seen as an infringement of individual right; either interference by the state or 'busybodies'.

Two incidents that, to me, highlight the selfishness (and arrogance) of our individualistic culture; a hen-party in a popular restaurant in Sunbury-on-Thames, late 80s, where the male-stripper was at the table, contorting and writhing so close to ours (late ex and me) that he was spilling our drinks. There was no room to move our table, but the hens could've moved theirs enough to make room for their stripper - which my ex asked them to do. "No" - "we booked this table, tough luck" kind of response.

Many years later in a rather nice pub in the Cotswolds having a quiet drink with my now OH - when smoking was still allowed - I asked the few patrons if they minded if I smoked, over in the corner of the pub away from the bar, and said if anyone objected I'd be happy to step outside in the garden area (this was winter so no-one outside).

There was a stunned silence which I took to mean a 'yes-we-do-mind', so slipped outside to smoke. Much later the barman told me that the 'silence' was because the customers were shocked that I had bothered to ask... they expected smokers to just smoke where and when they felt like it.

I think the individuals with their speaker-phone conversation mentioned in the OP are part and parcel of the same trend - some don't give a fig or thought to anyone other than themselves because over the decades, we've been encouraged to be selfish and self-indulgent.

That's my view anyway.

Yes I find people talking loudly on speakerphone very rude or having those earbuds in and shouting into what seems to be thin air.
We endured a young woman having a FaceTime call with someone whilst having what we expected to be a quiet coffee. We put up with the loud exchange until she turned the camera round to pan the cafe with us sitting right where the camera was panning, at this point I put my hand up palm outwards and said very loudly ‘turn that off or this hand gesture could become much ruder.’ We didn’t stick around to see what kind of conversation they had after that. 😂

People have been doing this ever since mobile phones have been available. I was having lunch years ago in an hotel and a large party, including Bill Nighy ,who had been filming nearby arrived, and throughout the meal various Very Important Producers and Directors had loud conversations, possibly with each other, (it was a large table) and the whole dining room was transfixed, trying to eavesdrop. It was the first time I had seen mobile phones produced during a meal.
Now it is unusual if they are not.

Regularly intrigued by 'must take this call' (often preceded by sorry). Why? Is life one constant emergency? When I'm in company my phone is off.

I was at a talk recently where a member of the audience (70ish) didn’t have her phone on silent, and then when it rang proceeded to have a long conversation. Unbelievable!
On another occasion we went to the theatre and found it was full of noisy teenagers. However, as soon as the lights dimmed there was complete silence. Not one phone or toffee wrapper to be heard for the entire performance.

I think Dickens has got it spot on!

People think their individual "right" to do what they want overrules any sense of common decency and simple manners. Only last night, we went out for a meal while on a short break away from home(a rare occurrence for us) and a table behind us had eight people all shouting at each other at the tops of their voices. They were not youngsters, probably in their 50s, and it was so bad that the manager of the restaurant saw our obvious discomfort and told us that he was trying to clear a table in a quieter part of the restaurant for us to move to. When that wasn't possible, he then came and whispered to us that he had told his staff to server their food as soon as possible as he thought they might make less noise once they were eating! That worked for a while - until they had finished eating when the noise level ramped up yet again. We finished our meal quickly and left, but it spoilt the whole evening for us.

It's not necessarily a new thing, though. A friend of mine was once sitting on the Tube next to someone who was playing music on a Walkman (remember those?) through earphones but at a level where the noise was still very intrusive and annoying to all those sitting around them. When one particular song finished, he tapped this person on the shoulder and said "Oh, can you play that again, it's one of my favourites!" Said person went very red and turned down the sound to the applause of the rest of the carriage!

Sorry to go a bit off-track...

Kim19

Regularly intrigued by 'must take this call' (often preceded by sorry). Why? Is life one constant emergency? When I'm in company my phone is off.

Very good point Kim19!

It does prompt you to ponder how we ever got through our day before mobile 'phones without regularly / hourly jumping into one of those public 'phone booths...

Although nearly everyone has got a mobile 'phone - I believe that having a conversation on it whilst doing very ordinary things, like walking along the street or taking the tube, might make people feel important?

When the technology first appeared and people carried mobile 'phones the size of a house brick - you'd not infrequently see one plonked on a table in a restaurant in front of its proud owner.

My late ex - when he noticed this - used to say in a rather loud voice, oh look, there's an Important Person in the restaurant.

Said Important Person, when he did (always a man) make contact, would usually talk in cryptic office-jargon in a loud voice, eyeing up the other patrons to make sure they were suitably impressed. Or else, the signal would be so bad that neither could hear the other and Important Person would have to gather up his brick-phone and walk towards the door looking studiously serious saying things like, "Hi Simon, I'm in the restaurant, can you hear me now...?"

I hate calls on speaker phone , so rude and unexceptional. I find it’s not the younger generation who do this but the older generation. I’ve been on trains and in restaurants and the loud person on speaker phone is 50 plus .
I’m a hygienist and we have a notice asking no phone calls in surgery and we still get patients insisting that they have to take the call . Obviously if it’s urgent , it’s not a problem but I’ve had patients have a 5 minute call !!!

How on earth did we manage without mobile phones?
I have even heard private details like bank account numbers being shouted out into a phone while on public transport.
Another annoying habit is mothers of young children and babies walking around pushing a pram with one hand while in the other hand is their phone which they keep staring into.The poor baby is ignored.Even worse is crossing a road doing it.

mabon1

It is rude and inconsiderate.

It’s appalling bad manners.

I was on a train the other month when a man had his phone really loud listening to music. His demeanour was aggressive and I felt too intimidated to object. Thankfully he got off after a couple of stops smirking I noticed.

Grannynannywanny

I’ve been puzzled by the speakerphone behaviour in recent months. I see so many folk walking along the street having a phone conversation and instead of having the phone to their ear they are holding it in a horizontal position at their chin with speakerphone blaring. I wonder why they do it. It reminds me of Dom Jolly’s “I’m on the phone” sketches from years ago .

I once found and sent someone an annoying birthday card with Dom Joly on the front with his outsize mobile phone that SHOUTED "I'm on the phone!" each time it was opened.

I wonder how long it took for the battery to run down?

I didn’t say anything on this occasion as didn’t want to come across as a grumpy old woman…. I find things like this irritate me more these days and thought best to ignore and carry on enjoying my coffee and lunch.

I would have been tempted to instigate a round of applause when she finally ended her call and left the restaurant.

Seriously, I also find speakerphone conversations irritating and unnecessary in public places. The one and only time I have ever used the facility was when I was having a conversation with a computer technician but that was in the privacy of my house, not in a cafe.

I think people who use their phones in public should use earphones. It’s common sense and beyond arrogant to think other people should have to tolerate your noise.
I would have asked her politely to use earphones. But in my experience people like that are rude and selfish so probably would have got an earful. Might have made her think though.

I find those who do it to be obnoxious and arrogant, they think absolutely everyone wants to hear their boring conversations about their latest squeeze or which fake eyelashes they're worshipping now!

There's a woman, late teens you gets on the buses and I genuinely think her conversations on her mobile are totally fake, I don't think she's actually talking to anyone but she ''rings'' 7 or 8 one after the other telling them in a very loud voice ''I'M ON INSTAGRAM NOW! Yes, I know! It's great isn't it?! Here's my handle: @ .... You can get me on there and FOLLOW MEEEE!''

I'm in Instagram but I've got no intention at all of Following Miss Gobby!

petra .... HA HA HA!

I read about a man on the train who was having a loud conversation with his wife on the phone, which everybody close by could hear. A woman in the seat behind leaned over and said in a loud voice " oh darling, do put that phone down and come back to bed". Priceless!

Back in the days of those "brick" phones, the funniest thing I ever saw was one of the Dads turning up at my DD's primary school to collect his son, striding through the playground pretending to be on his phone having a Very Important Conversation, when it suddenly started ringing! All us mums absolutely fell about laughing and he exited with a very red face

AskAlice

Back in the days of those "brick" phones, the funniest thing I ever saw was one of the Dads turning up at my DD's primary school to collect his son, striding through the playground pretending to be on his phone having a Very Important Conversation, when it suddenly started ringing! All us mums absolutely fell about laughing and he exited with a very red face

... striding through the playground pretending to be on his phone having a Very Important Conversation, when it suddenly started ringing! All us mums absolutely fell about laughing and he exited with a very red face

😁😁

Back in the 80s, a work colleague - permanently well-pleased with himself - was the first in the office to get one of these brick-phones. It made him feel Very Important.

He was an industrial surveyor, out in the field on a daily basis, so it did in fact make sense for him to have one. However, he often used it in the office instead of picking up the landline phone. He'd pack up his briefcase with its many zips and locks, stowing the brick-phone at the bottom because of its weight and size, and depart shouting that if we needed him, we could 'catch' him on his "cell".

We regularly waited until he was halfway down the stairs (no lifts in the building) and give him a call, then sneak out on the landing to watch him sit down on the stairs, unzip and unlock his zips and locks, bring out his Motorola brick - and then cut him off... he fell for it every time because of course, it could have been a client calling.

We found out later that in fact very few clients actually called him on his cell - the functionality was poor and its range limited. But, for a while, it made him feel Very Important.

Dickens That made me giggle! Naughty, but very funny

Most annoying , and damned rude, went into a local shop to return some goods, woman behind counter, ear pods in,talking away to goodness who, and never stopped all the time she was serving me. Needless to say won't go there again.