Public use of mobile phones (do not enter if you hate Rumpie)

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Yeah yeah, I folded. So what? Who doesn't?

Anyway - why is it acceptable for folk to get annoyed by those who talk on mobile phones on public transport etc, yet nobody cares when people talk to whoever they are actually with?

Talking is talking, why tut just because one party isn't visible and you can't hear their side of the conversation, surely two people talking to each other is more annoying if you're apt to get pissed off at speech at all?!

I don't understand....

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:12 (nineteen years ago)

When you can only hear one person talking it can be frustrating because obv. you're missing half the story. OTOH it could be fun trying to work out what the other person is saying.

I don't like talking on public transport if I think other people will hear me clearly.

― Sororah T Massacre (blueski), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:16 (nineteen years ago)

WB!

I think it's partly only being able to hear one side that IS so annoying. Also, people tend to talk more loudly - unnecessarily so - on phones than when the person is next to them.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:16 (nineteen years ago)

i have shouted at others and at another time been shouted at, so public transport and me = 1-1

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:17 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, yay, Rumpie, I'm so glad that you're back! I've missed you.

To answer your question, when people in person talk on trains, generally they keep their volume down to an acceptible level. (Unless they are drunk or utter twats.) When people are on phones, they seem to pay no attention to their surroundings, and talk MUCH MORE LOUDLY than would normally be acceptible in those situations.

God, there was this twat of a girl doing this on the train the other day which wound me up SO MUCH...

x-post

― Cuair Crithlonracha (kate), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:17 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, as stevem kind of says, our brains can tune out of conversation when they hear both sides of it, because it has a natural flow. But it's like we're hard-wired to want to hear a response to things. Hear only one side of it and it's, no matter how much we try to ignore it, our brains are constantly trying to fill in the gaps.

That's the way I see it, anyway.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:18 (nineteen years ago)

My guessis: if it's two people talking, it's a continuous noise stream that you can filter out.

If it's one, its an intermittent noise stream that is always 'starting' i.e. breaking the silence over and over.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:18 (nineteen years ago)

Welcome back!

It's acceptable because people can't decide what annoys them and what doesn't, and because eavedropping on half a conversation isn't nearly as much fun, and because people shout on phones - almost as if they want everyone else to hear. I get annoyed with *anyone* talking on the train, even people I know talking to me. Train = music & book time.

I take it from this you find "I'm on the same train I get every day at this time" conversations less annoying than someone eating an ice cream?

lots of xposts

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:18 (nineteen years ago)

i hate getting a call when i'm on a bus or tram, i feel like everyone's listening ( i'm sure they have better things to do) so i'm all "hello, what, ok, erm, no, right, bye!"

― not-goodwin (not-goodwin), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:20 (nineteen years ago)

I have a personal rule that I don't talk about politics or um, cultural product on public transport, even in person (I don't talk on my phone at all). I think it's because I don't want other people to sit there thinking how wrong/stupid I am, much like I sit there thinking how wrong/stupid other people are when they talk about stuff.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:20 (nineteen years ago)

People also seem to somehow bafflingly forget theyre in public - I've heard the most embarrasingly personal things said by someone on a phone, you just know they wouldn't say loudly to someone in person on a train, say. Do they forget everyone else can hear them?

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:20 (nineteen years ago)

Ha ha, solo ice cream consumage on public transport? Give me the arsehole droning about overheads and KPI's into his bluetooth headset anyday.

I too keep my conversations short and sweet on transport too. I'd hate people to hear me arguing about what's for tea or why I'm not going to Somerfield, 'cause that's all my phone conversations entail, really :~(

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:29 (nineteen years ago)

"nobody cares when people talk to whoever they are actually with?"

i dispute this. other passengers whould be seen and not heard.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:31 (nineteen years ago)

Do people find it more or less distracting when the people are talking in a foreign language?

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:32 (nineteen years ago)

Why aren't you going to Somerfield, as a matter of interest?

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:32 (nineteen years ago)

less distracting if foreign, good point. usually anyway.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:33 (nineteen years ago)

hi rumpie!

― estela (estela), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:33 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I agree with Tracy. When people talk with each other on public, they usually remember where they are and don't talk about intimate things. Whereas people with cell phones seem to forget their surroundings, and let out such details no one would normally want a strangers to hear. I don't want to hear about some middle-aged lady's marriage crisis while I'm commuting to work, thank you! Normally, in such situations I'd just put my headphones on, but at the moment my Discman is broken, so I have no choice but witness these discussions.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:34 (nineteen years ago)

Somerfield are fucking RUBBISH, I expect that's why. They're neither one thing nor the other. Not good and not cheap either.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:34 (nineteen years ago)

I'm going straight home. I've had a hard day. Yes I know I've been sitting at a desk but I'm really tired. I just want to get home. You go to Somerfield on YOUR way home. You've got the car. I'd have to carry the bags. I've got sore hands.

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:34 (nineteen years ago)

the best overheard half of a mobile conversation i ever eavesdropped wz a fellow on the 242 near liverpool street getting a first-hand report of an on-going RIOT in brixton which his friend wz excitedly in the thick of -- the guy in front of me (who wz in his 40s, and if not exactly dressed as a city gent wz no teen hoodie either, wz givin him advice on escape shortcuts and stuff, and the other guy wz askin possibly jokey advice abt loot or not to loot)

(this wd be abt ten years ago: the riot never showed up on national media radar so wz i guess no more than a minor affray)

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:34 (nineteen years ago)

more distracting if foreign, often. they tend to seem like they are talking louder than necessary, even if they aren't, I think

I think I agree w/ being able to filter out a full conversation, easier than half of one, and, maybe, easier to filter out one in your own language, too

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:36 (nineteen years ago)

I don't mind people talking in a language I don't understand as long as they're not squawking at each other and having a good old laugh. Then I think it's rude and want to be let in on the joke. The Hong Kong students in my third year flat used to drive me demented with this. I think I find un-understood Chinese quite grating as a language, actually, at least as practicised by excited students.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:37 (nineteen years ago)

Ten years ago = Euro 96? Fighting all over London and not a peep on the news iirc.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:37 (nineteen years ago)

re foreign:
set-up: the chairman of my current place of work is/was a fellow "sir nicholas g00dis0n" -- as the org is and has been in one kind of turmoil and another all the time i've been there, his name is/was often bandied abt at work, as ultimately responsible for everything wrong abt everything ever everywhere

pay-off: i wz on a bus near king's cross and behind me were a german tourist family excitedly chattering i think abt the concert they had just attended -- actually i don't know as my german is halt at best, but they were reading from a programme w.a big night-time pic of the albert hall on it... they were being quite noisy but it wz foreign so didn't impinge, and i wz reading away -- then one of them suddenly said in a loud deep voice: "sir nicholas g00dis0n!!"

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:41 (nineteen years ago)

I hate Somerfield with a passion. Sadly it's the only supermarket in my town centre and opens later than the fruit shop so after work trips for onions and that are frequent.

More annoying that phone conversations are people who haven't disabled the 'beeping key' function and sit texting. BEEP BEEP BEEPBEEPBEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.

And ringtones.

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:41 (nineteen years ago)

People playing music on their phones is still #1.

― Sororah T Massacre (blueski), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:43 (nineteen years ago)

very possibly gerry! i can't really remember the year to be honest -- in my cartoonised memory his phone was as big as dom jolly's, and i think it WAS for real one of the size-of-a-brick phones, and that this wz before the little tiny ones came in as a teen thing

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:43 (nineteen years ago)

I shared a rail carriage with a large group of french folk not long ago. I thought my understood french was relatively good and thought I'd understand what they were saying. Wrong. I didn't understand one word.

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:43 (nineteen years ago)

fang fing fang fing fong!

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:47 (nineteen years ago)

with foreign languages you don't get hooked in, though.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 11:50 (nineteen years ago)

It's only annoying when they talk in very loud voices, which they do quite often, it seems to me. It makes me want to say STFU BRAYING FOOL.

Also, extra annoyance points for k-lame 1/2 conversation (in loud voice)

YES I'M ON THE BUS

WE'RE JUST COMING UP TO SWALWELL ROUNDABOUT

I'LL BE IN TOWN IN 20 MINUTES

ffs, are you this boring irl? I visualise the conversation at home:

I'M JUST WALKING THROUGH FROM THE KITCHEN

YES I'M SWITCHING THE TELEVISION ON

I'M SHUTTING THE BEDROOM DOOR.

etc.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 14:13 (nineteen years ago)

I usually hear some inane girl with big earrings and a puffa doing the estuary lisp LOUDLY and the word 'respect' features at least six times in 20 seconds. One consequence of the 38 going bendy is that I no longer know what the social pressures of the day are for ho-baggy late-teen girls from NE London.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 14:20 (nineteen years ago)

nice

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 14:21 (nineteen years ago)

Glasgow equivalent: those girls from I dunno Southside who do not let silence between words get in the way of a good conversation; they start every sentence with 'ehh' and then swim neatly into the 'first' word with more 'ehhh' allowed to escape between subsequent words.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 14:25 (nineteen years ago)

all of the people on my bus talk like the lex.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 14:26 (nineteen years ago)

>>YES I'M ON THE BUS

WE'RE JUST COMING UP TO SWALWELL ROUNDABOUT

I'LL BE IN TOWN IN 20 MINUTES

ffs, are you this boring irl?
>>

This seems just slightly harsh, I mean presumably they are on the way to meet their friends and are letting them know where they are, what's the big problem with that?

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 14:32 (nineteen years ago)

http://philippe.ramin.free.fr/texas-southside-front_mini.jpg

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 14:34 (nineteen years ago)

I was overstating for (hopefully) humorous effect, poo. Obv I failed miserably :(

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 14:35 (nineteen years ago)

(RJG I wasnae about to say this unprompted...ehhhh...but Ms. $p1+3r1 actually does speak JUST LIKE THAT!)

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 14:39 (nineteen years ago)

no i felt it (xpost)

― Sororah T Massacre (blueski), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 14:40 (nineteen years ago)

Sorry my humour mode is not working today. I have a cold and my nose won't stop running and it's having the extremely annoying side effect of making my eyes water constantly as well. And I have to go and watch Death Cab For Cutie tonight.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 14:43 (nineteen years ago)

omigod )))hugglez((( d00d :(

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 14:48 (nineteen years ago)

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