Seeking to understand speaker phone use in public

I’m traveling with family this weekend in a touristy place and have been out in public in crowded areas. I am really shocked by the number of people who have loud, personal conversations on the phone in speaker mode. This ranges from walking down the sidewalk, to in line for washrooms, to seated restaurant dining.

I’ve heard people say that it’s because the phone speaker breaks (for their ear) but I’ve never had that happen in all the years I’ve destroyed phones and never had a friend or colleague say that happened. Other people say it’s because the glass is cracked and they worry about cutting their face, etc.

My personal bias is this is inconsiderate but then I ask myself how is it different from talking to a person next to them, say. I’m willing to be change my mind here.

People who do this, please explain what’s going on so I can sleep at night. :)

dojan,
@dojan@lemmy.world avatar

My boss mentioned that she thinks it’s from those reality TV shows like the Kardashian ones where all calls are on speaker since it’s part of the “entertainment.”

It’s why people are holding the phone up to their face like a sandwich and speaking into the bottom. It mimics the TV shows.

WarmSoda,

They hold it up because they’re holding a microphone and speaking into it. It doesn’t have anything to do with reality TV.

SpaceNoodle,

Or they could just hold the phone up to the side of their face as intended.

WarmSoda,

Well yeah, that’s what this conversation is talking about lol

andrew_bidlaw,

It’s a behavior I started to see in people recording voice messages. Some UIs lagged behind and didn’t turn off the screen at that time + these persons may want to reference whatever happened in their chat. Why they record audio is another question.

mnemonicmonkeys,

You’re misunderstanding their comment. The person is referring to people that hold the phone up to their mouth to speak into, but not up to their ear to listen because they’re using speakerphone. This is a dumb way to use the phone because you don’t need to hold the phone up to your face if you’re using speakerphone

WarmSoda,

Yes that’s what I’m talking about. They’re holding the phone up in front of them like a microphone and speaking at it.

mnemonicmonkeys,

When the other user said “they should hold on the side of their face like they’re supposed to” you said the same thing. What he said is different from what I said, so which orientation are you actually talking about?

WarmSoda,

What is so difficult to understand?

It’s why people are holding the phone up to their face like a sandwich and speaking into the bottom.

This is the comment I replied to. They are speaking into the microphone.

mnemonicmonkeys,

You responded to this comment: lemmy.world/comment/4351598

They described a completely different phone orientation and you claimed that’s what you were describing.

Also, the comment you are currently referring to is describing the person holding the phone horizontal and speaking into the mic while also using speakerphone which means there’s literally no need to hold the phone up to your face

WarmSoda,

Oook dude.
It’s the same fucking thing lol

Do you need me to list every possible way a person could hold a phone while on speaker? What will satisfy this obsession you have?

mnemonicmonkeys,

Either you’re a troll or an idiot. If it’s the latter, go back and reread the thread

WarmSoda, (edited )

How dumb are you? I’m being serious. Do you just not understand a lot of things? When people talk do you zone out and drool? When was the last time you spoke to a human being face to face that wasn’t related to you?

I’m honestly curious. How do dumb people like you process conversations?

Do you even understand what using speakerphone is?

mnemonicmonkeys,

So you’re a troll. Thanks for the confirmation

WarmSoda,

You not understanding simple things = the other person is a troll

Tuxman,
Tuxman avatar

I doubt that’d be the reason (for iphones at least) because when you turn on speakerphone, the sounds comes out the bottom and the voice goes in the FaceTime mic at the top of the screen (beside the earpiece).

So if they want to be heard as clearly as they can, they should hold the display facing them (like you’re in a video call but no image)

WarmSoda,

Right. That’s what I’m saying. They are holding it up and talking at the microphone.

Tuxman,
Tuxman avatar

Oh my god!! That’s the most plausible hypothesis I’ve heard on that weird phenomenon!!

People do the weirdest and most uncomfortable pose just because they don’t understand they do it on TV so the Boom mic can pick up the convo….

yesdogishere,

even without speaker phone, im always shouting out my conversations out loud. it's a good way to build mojo. Anytime people stare too long, i just glare and scream "waddya looking at !!!!". Mojo is very important, and helps me get the best business deals.

lurch,

How else are people gonna know you’re an important successful business person! /s

FoundTheVegan,
FoundTheVegan avatar

I just slide over my subtly off white, tastefully thick, watermarked business card.

NikkiDimes,

Eggshell? With Romalian type? My god…

lambda,
@lambda@programming.dev avatar

I like this as a possible explanation. In my experience however, it’s been older people who do this. The generation that most likely wouldn’t be watching these shows

shalafi,

52 here and I do this. It’s comfortable and people can hear me well. I don’t do it in public, except for walking around my yard and talking to a customer or vendor. Even then I feel a little odd.

What is a “television show”?

lambda,
@lambda@programming.dev avatar

Yeah, I do it not in public too. The topic is specifically about in public though and that’s what I was addressing.

XbSuper,

Really? I’ve only ever seen younger people do this.

dangblingus,

North Americans suffer from main character syndrome. They learned the speakerphone thing from watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians. People literally think you’re supposed to use a cell phone on speakerphone only because Kim does it, not understanding that it’s for the camera so the audience can hear both sides of the conversation.

kcdaguy,

For me, it’s so I can read information from my screen while I am on the phone. I can pull up my calendar and schedule appointments or look up an email and share the information with my conversation. I also just hold my phone to my face when I don’t need to look at the screen.

AnalogyAddict,

Just start participating in their conversations. That shuts them up really quickly.

uis,
@uis@lemmy.world avatar

Thank Faust I don’t see this in my country. With maybe exception of listening voice messages in loud places.

Empricorn,

I know how judgemental this sounds, but it’s because the bottom speaker is louder, and because they don’t care about other people.

Since the phone was invented, they designed it with a speaker that goes against your ear for easily heard, yet private conversations.

DillyDaily,

I’m this person. I have a few rules - I never have a phone conversation on public transport (bus, train, etc) and if it’s a long conversation or overly personal I’ll tell them I’ll call them back when I’m in a private room.

But I’ll answer quick calls like “can you grab bread on your way home?” or “I’m on my way, but I’m running late” on speaker in public.

I have reverse slope hearing loss, and I’m a very forgetful person who always leaves their seventeen pairs of headphones somewhere that isn’t on my person.

I can’t hear phone conversations properly without putting the phone directly in front of me so both ears are listening.

It’s gotten better with VoIP because the method of compression is different to the old copper lines - I can’t hear shit over analogue, as a teenager I used to use relay services because I couldn’t hear male voices over phone. But some people’s phone service is still really badly compressed, I’m on a tight budget so unfortunately I can’t afford a quality service, or a flagship smartphone that let’s me pitch adjust incoming calls.

I can’t afford hearing aids for RSHL (they’re not standard) so in the meantime I answer the phone on speaker and hold it in front of my face. (unless I have my headphones and can plug both in)

I try not to shout at my phone, but half the time it’s my deaf mother calling me and we just end up shouting at each other over the phone, or it’s one of the students calling me, I teach conversational English for migrants and IT for seniors, so there’s a huge language or hearing barrier and my stupid little monkey brain thinks speaking louder will help even though I know it won’t.

grabyourmotherskeys,

Thank you, this is exactly the kind of perspective I was hoping to see here.

AA5B,

I was about to ask if you considered texting for those occurrences…… until your Mother entered the picture, and seniors, maybe migrants

mindbleach,

Some people are assholes.

Happy to help.

Lazylazycat,
@Lazylazycat@lemmy.world avatar

A lot of people send voice messages now, so you’d normally record/play them that way.

Bermos,

Which is also stupid since at least for playback you can just put the phone up to your ear as you would for a phone call and the sound switches to the top speaker.

Lazylazycat,
@Lazylazycat@lemmy.world avatar

Mine doesn’t do this, and even if it did you’d have to keep moving it back to hit “record”.

uis,
@uis@lemmy.world avatar

It’s up to implementation.

grabyourmotherskeys,

That’s true, never thought of that. These are definitely conversations but I take you point, thank you.

I have a coworker whose wife only sends voice messages, no texting etc.

seitanic,

I’ve had phone calls that were so quiet I could barely hear them, even when I turned the volume up all the way. I don’t know if it would’ve been any better in speaker mode, though.

mojo,

As someone with really bad anxiety, these people are aliens to me. Whenever I start to think I understand people, behavior like this is so incredibly foreign that I can can’t comprehend relating to

grabyourmotherskeys,

I have really bad anxiety but I’m really good at pretending I don’t except under a lot of stress. That’s partly why I asked this. I just don’t understand. I’ve been on the road since I asked this but the few replies I’ve seen do make some sense so I’m glad I asked.

MajesticSloth,
@MajesticSloth@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t even like taking a call or listening to other people take a call in the same room as I am. I always leave the room for privacy. In a home environment at least, could deal with it in a work environment. So I really don’t get it for those that do it in public.

Duamerthrax,

You never know what the other person is going to say. It’s safer to leave the room in case they say something in what they assume is a private call. A few times when the group I’m with needs to hear what’s on the phone, I always let the person on the other side I’m turning on the speaker. I would be pissed and stop calling the other person if I thought they had me on blast.

____,

People do that to me at work frequently - I know you have me on speaker, that’s fine, but you’re in your little private office so no worries…

Nope, Jerry from Billing is sitting there listening to every word, and will jump in and offer “assistance” on topics he knows fuck all about. The person I’m actually trying to assist will of course take Jerry’s input over mine… So why didn’t you just ask him in the first place?

IamLost,

My mother does this. She says it’s because she can’t hear it when she puts it up to her ear. I think she’s just not positioning the phone correctly to her ear. I’ve bought her headphones and headsets, but she’s a retired old lady that’s technologically challenged so she’s pretty much never going to stop it.

grabyourmotherskeys,

My mother has hearing aids which are terrible with any phone so I told her to use speaker phone but the idea of using the phone when not at home unless it’s an emergency is still pretty far out there for her. :)

uis,
@uis@lemmy.world avatar

Regular headphones are cheaper than hearing aids

Hexarei,
@Hexarei@programming.dev avatar

My boss got hearing aids that connect via Bluetooth to his phone. It was always kinda funny to start talking to him and have him put a finger up to indicate you should wait while he turns off his music lol

grabyourmotherskeys,

I have often thought about how people today will be fine with hearing aids while people in my parents generation are obsessed with hiding them or not using them when they should because they don’t want people to know that need them.

Those tiny hearing aids are hard to work with (changing the batteries, finding them of they go missing, etc). I’ll be wearing headphones anyway, why not use them in hearing aid mode?

andrew_bidlaw,

Voice messages and earbuds. One promoted speaking and recording publicly (you control your side of convo anyway), the other normalized speaking on the go (as long as you have buds) without holding a phone.

grabyourmotherskeys,

I wish people would just say why they disagree with you rather than just downvoting.

Thanks for your thoughts.

almightyGreek,

How is it different from having a conversation with everyone in the same space? I mean, you wouldn’t care if the other person was in the same room as the caller, would you?

OneOrTheOtherDontAskMe,

Normally the people on speakerphone and the person holding the phone are much louder than a standard conversation. If both were in the same room, they could use appropriate volume modulation with respect to others around them.

Lazylazycat,
@Lazylazycat@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve never heard a speaker phone that’s louder than voice level, I don’t understand this.

grabyourmotherskeys,

This is kind of what I’m coming around to. That’s just how it is now and I need to adjust my thinking.

altima_neo,
@altima_neo@lemmy.zip avatar

People love to air out their laundry

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