I was at the gym yesterday at lunch riding a stationary bike instead of riding my bike in the pouring rain. At that time of day it’s a noisy place, filled with lunchtime regulars chatting away as they sweat. There were two people to my left on other bikes having a conversation. A guy to my right on a cell phone, and a guy to the right of him complaining about it more loudly than any other conversation in the area. The cell phone call was no noisier than anything else, and the content that I could hear on this end was not offensive, rude, or in any way inappropriate - something about a friend’s trip to Boston. There were no complaints about the conversation that was going on between the folks on my left.
I’m not a big phone user but I’ve seen and heard about such reactions a lot - why is it that a conversation in which only one party is physically present is somehow seen as much worse than one in which both parties are talking face to face? What am I missing here?
The loud talkers in places that are confined bother me. Just about 20 minutes ago a guy gets on an elevator blathering away. We had gone up 14 floors before he realized he was only talking to me as the phone had lost reception sometime after the door closed.
In the gym I work at talking on a cell phone is against the rules, and if a staff member sees it they’re supposed to politely ask the offender to end the convo and put the phone away. It happens that some people get cranky about it, but for the most part people are OK with it.
I was stretching in a cardio room that was not being used and this woman came in with her kid (not good–kids are not supposed to be at the gym) and started talking on her cell phone. I let it go for about 15 minutes but the kid was throwing physio balls that were hitting me while I stretched so I finally said something to her. She had an absolute shit fit and told me that I need to work on my inside, not just my outside before she stormed off. I have low tolerance for cell phones and even lower tolerance for idiots so you it took all of my restraint to not get in a yelling match with her.
welcome to the new “itsallaboutme” America… get some! (on both sides of that debate: the cell phone user and the people making a POINT to be disruptive)
I just go about my business no matter where cell phone users are located. If they can’t hear their call because of me, then perhaps they should rethink how/when they use their phone. A few weeks ago I actually almost had it out with a guy (probably in his 50’s?) who couldn’t stop texting during a movie. It was directly in front of us, and impacting the viewing of the movie.
It is a rarity to see people actually think about what they are doing and how it affects others around them…as opposed to just themselves.
I consider public cell phone use rude when you are interrupting someone else or disturbing someone else. Like the douchebag in line in front of me at the grocery store a few days ago. He was blabbing away at his cell phone while the poor checkout girl was just standing there while he was searching for 23 cents in exact change and dropping his wallet at least once while dropping change at least another time because one hand was plastered to his ear. I swear I was → ← this close from asking the guy if he needed some help and then grabbing the phone out of his hand and hanging it up.
I work in a fairly hight rent building and at least once a week when I go into the bathroom to pee there is a guy taking a dump and talking on his phone. More than once he flushes without breaking conversation.
Are you sure it wasn’t one of the idiots that talks loudly on speakerphone with the phone three inches from their face? Why not just put the phone against the ear and speak normally?
I work in a fairly hight rent building and at least once a week when I go into the bathroom to pee there is a guy taking a dump and talking on his phone. More than once he flushes without breaking conversation.
Make it a point to burp or fart loudly when you encounter that.
I dont’ think cell phone usage is rude. It’s someone having a conversation. If you are in a place where it isn’t considered rude to have a conversation with someone, using a cell phone is not rude…it’s no different. It drives people crazy because they can’t hear the entire conversation, they can only hear half of it. That’s why they think it’s rude, because it annoys them.
I think the problem is that most people don’t speak at the same level into their phone as they would in a face-to-face conversation. For some reason, people think they need to speak more loudly into their phones, and it’s even worse for people wearing wireless earsets. Additionally, when people are talking on the phone, they are engaging a part of their brain normally used for concentrating on things like where they’re going, what they’re doing, who they’re bumping into, etc.
Loud and clumsy is not a great conversation in public.
I recall hearing an explanation for this from a longtime employee of Western Electric - the company in the old Bell System that made landline phones; I don’t know if it’s true or not. Landline phones have (or at least used to have) a feedback circuit that had the effect of amplifying the sound of your own voice as you spoke into it. Cell phones and headsets have no such circuitry, and are often used in places where the background noise is higher than what is typically found in homes, offices, etc. where landline phones usually are. You speak louder to compensate for the reduced perceived volume of your own voice.
Inappropriate cell phone use is a huge pet peeve of mine. It would seem the technology has been developed well in advance of the customs and conventions surrounding appropriate use. As a result, it’s mayhem.