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Seeking to understand speaker phone use in public (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago by grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world to c/casualconversation@lemmy.world

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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. :)

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[-] IamLost@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

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@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

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. :)

[-] Hexarei@programming.dev 3 points 11 months ago

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@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

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?