The speakerphone paradox

[u/NeighborhoodJust1197]

I was at the pool today when a woman started having a conversation on her phone using the speaker.

I politely asked her if she could not use the speaker and pointed to my headphones.
She said, “I don’t have headphones.”
So I said, “You can just hold the phone next to your ear.”

She looked at me with a completely blank expression and said, “I’m on speakerphone.”
I said, “Well… that’s the problem.”

Apparently, we had reached the limits of modern technology.

[u/Pennet173]

How do you even claim it’s not as obnoxious as people make it out to be? Are they saying I’m lying for no reason?

[u/PersonalAct3732 → u/Pennet173]

Same people that say "___ hate is so forced", people refuse to acknowledge opinions that aren't theirs as real

[u/DigiornoDLC → u/PersonalAct3732]

Sometimes there are things that become popular to hate - not because they’re actually awful, but saying that you hate them communicates you’re a member of the in group. It happens all the time. Sometimes hating some subject is genuinely forced.

Look at how people talked about Justin Bieber.

[u/WeNotAmBeIs → u/DigiornoDLC]

Yeah I don't like bandwagon hate. Hating something should always be sincere. I've hated Imagine Dragons since before they even got popular. (I had a ridiculous and annoying moment with someone who knew the band when they were still unknown and he made me listen to a bunch of their songs) When everyone else started fake hating them I wanted to tell all of them "We are not alike". I've mellowed out since then so it doesn't bother me as much.

[u/ryudo9999 → u/DigiornoDLC]

Look at how people talked about gays 30 years ago

[u/J5892 → u/ryudo9999]

And how they talk about gays now.
Granted, most of those arguments have been copy/pasted over to trans people, but we evolved from monkeys, and there are still monkeys.

[u/suprahelix → u/DigiornoDLC]

Sooo many adult men hating on Justin Bieber.

His music is (nominally) for tween girls, obviously you don’t care for it.

[u/throwaway277252 → u/suprahelix]

And when you dig a little deeper beyond his genre of music, he was actually really very talented for his age. The guy could play numerous instruments aside from his singing and was self taught.

[u/Stubborn_Shove → u/DigiornoDLC]

Look at how people talked about Justin Bieber.

Or how people of various minority identities get treated.

I'm not going to attribute hating black people because of the color of their skin to a simple "opinion that isn't mine being real".

[u/akiva23 → u/PersonalAct3732]

Someone tried saying this to me about pineapple pizza.

[u/Dead_Internet69420 → u/Pennet173]

“Why is everybody always complaining that I’m an inconsiderate bitch with no regard for anyone else? You’ll survive.” 

[u/meditate42 → u/Pennet173]

If the volume on the phone is low, and they're talking at a low volume i don't really see how its different from someone talking to another person in public. Speakerphone is obnoxious when someone is being loud. But if its done at the same volume as the other people around them talking, and they're not trying to talk over the others around them for the sake of their own conversation i don't see the problem.

[u/Legal_Map_7586 → u/meditate42]

Most people that talk on the phone / speakerphone in public are noticeably louder than two people having an in person conversation, whether they realize it or not.

[u/CertifiedMaleniaSimp → u/meditate42]

Yeah, I've never understood it either.

Playing music or videos through your phone is incredibly obnoxious, yeah. And obviously using your speakerphone in an otherwise fairly quiet place like a library is obnoxious. But this is at a pool. It is already a fairly loud environment most of the time. There is no shot that someone on speakerphone is going to be louder than any other conversation there, so you're basically asking for people to just not have any conversations at all.

[u/Indecisive-Gamer → u/CertifiedMaleniaSimp]

Bro most places are mostly quiet and phones are louder than people to compensate for the crappy speakers. If someone is on speaker on the train that's fucking annoying when 99% of people are just sat quietly or talking quietly to each other. Additionally you don't need to get it. If half the country says 'x' is fucking annoying you can just accept that and try to be less annoying. It clearly annoys people.

[u/BalooBot → u/Pennet173]

I mean in this case they're at an outdoor pool, it's not a library. Would you be upset if someone was sitting next to her having a conversation? I don't think I've ever used my speakerphone at all, let alone in public, but it's nothing worth getting your panties in a bunch over.

[u/iAmUnintelligible → u/Pennet173]

some woman was listening to some loud AI tiktok slop shit on the bus a couple days ago

I started lamenting to my son about how obnoxious it was to do it, like "don't be the kind of person that blares your phone speaker on public transit"

some girl sitting across from her BF starts giggling, minute or two later with still loud slop noises... I go on, "the best thing to do to these people is watch the same video but 2 seconds ahead so it spoils it for them", girl turns to face the window silently cackling, son giving me the sideeye about it

turns out, her boyfriend was watching a tiktok video (she was sitting diagonal to me, and him to my right so I didn't notice him) and apparently had his sound on and son said he immediately turned the volume off thinking I was talking about him lol (but I didn't even hear his, so it was probably a reasonable or less than conversational volume)

felt kinda bad for the guy that turned his volume down but I hope he realized I wasn't talking about him lol

[u/Smallloudcat → u/Pennet173]

No they are just oblivious and/or have main character syndrome. Ok, well, maybe they they are. But you’re not wrong.

[u/MMBitey → u/Pennet173]

Some people will even call you entitled for disliking and calling out entitled behavior and I think they really believe it.

[u/KangarooVast8133 → u/Pennet173]

I don't know how it's obnoxious if it's the only way I can understand someone on the phone with all the noises of the world, I can't answer every phone call from a sound proof recording studio

[u/Minimum_Step_3992 → u/KangarooVast8133]

So unless you’re in a sound proof recording studio, holding the phone up to your ear doesn’t work?

[u/KangarooVast8133 → u/Minimum_Step_3992]

It was hyperbole but in public places I can't

[u/Indecisive-Gamer → u/KangarooVast8133]

Bro holding it to you ear literally makes it louder and clearer? What are you on? Anything to justify being annoying.