Over the past 2-3 years, I’ve noticed an increase of people using their cell phones as walkie-talkies, and/or wanting to share their FaceTime moments with the world, in public places like coffee shops, restaurants, mass transit and airports.
All too often, there are people conducting open conversations from planning family dinners, to (more worryingly) discussing business deals and personnel challenges in the workplace with the cell-phones in “speaker-mode”. Bottom-line is that the vast majority of the people around them really don’t want or need to hear the deets, but these people seem totally oblivious to the fact the whole world can hear their conversations.
Amplify that yet further with people that think that Face Timing with the audio cranked up is perfectly acceptable behavior, or people watching videos with full audio; and you have to wonder if these people have any respect for those around them. I think not.
I used to let it go, but when you’ve got 2-3 people around you all doing the same, it gets to a point where you can’t hear yourself think. The simple solution… I’ll walk over and graciously ask if they’d like to borrow a pair of headphones. That seems to do the trick. So if you’re tired of hearing how many diaper changes someone’s grand-daughter had today, or don’t want to sit through the latest episode of Big Brother with audio blaring, don’t be afraid to extend the headphone offer, or at worst simply ask if they’d mind turning down the volume.
And let’s all try and have a little more respect for others. Thanks!
– David Sly, President