I blame the Nextel phone circa 2001 or so, and then when it extended to boost mobile and a wider audience for conditioning people to get used to this type of thing.

For the younger crowd it was a cell phone with a “walkie talkie” feature. Initially marketed towards contractors and such as a phone that was easier to use on job sites because the walkie talkie feature allowed instant communication rather than waiting for a cell phone call that had ringing and waiting for an answer.

Unlike normal walkie talkies it was backed by cellular networks so the range was basically infinite, the feature worked as long as you had compatible hardware so even if you weren’t on the same plan you could “beep” people, and it gained popularity quickly because this was the McMansion era where contractors were hired en masse by development companies that built the suburbia hell we have now, who in turn were encouraged to buy these phones and also tended to buy them for their families so they could “beep” them too. It gained even further popularity because the “beep” feature often didn’t count as phone usage in an era where unlimited plans did not exist and metered phone and texting plans were the norm. Lots of elder millennials can tell you about the time they got a $1200+ cell phone bill in 2006 talking/texting with their friends or crush, dark times.

I am so glad they died out. It was a scourge. I was in high school at the time and worked in restaurants throughout. In a short time it went from the etiquette being people being mad about cell phone ringers going off constantly to this nightmare scenario of “chirp chirp HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING” because again these acted as walkie talkies so there was no ringing, it was just a loud ass speakerphone with a person talking, immediately. When boost mobile came around they capitalized on this and marketed it as the “where you at” phone. Terrible

The guy who had his phone on speaker but was also holding it like normal baffled me.

I love the dirbags who hold their phone like a slice of pizza, then shout in the mic because the speakerphone is so loud it ducks the level all the time. It's hard to use a phone worse if you tried.

There's no reality TV cameras, Phaleeshya. Use your phone like a phone.

Needs text alternative.

Images of text break much that text alternatives do not. Losses due to image of text lacking alternative such as link:

• usability
  • we can't quote the text without pointless bullshit like retyping it or OCR
  • text search is unavailable
  • the system can't
    • reflow text to varied screen sizes
    • vary presentation (size, contrast)
    • vary modality (audio, braille)
• accessibility
  • lacks semantic structure (tags for titles, heading levels, sections, paragraphs, lists, emphasis, code, links, accessibility features, etc)
  • some users can't read this due to lack of alt text
  • users can't adapt the text for dyslexia or vision impairments
  • systems can't read the text to them or send it to braille devices
• web connectivity
  • we have to do failure-prone bullshit to find the original source
  • we can't explore wider context of the original message
• authenticity: we don't know the image hasn't been tampered
• searchability: the "text" isn't indexable by search engine in a meaningful way
• fault tolerance: no text fallback if
  • image breaks
  • image host is geoblocked due to insane regulations.

Contrary to age & humble appearance, text is an advanced technology that provides all these capabilities absent from images.

I like the solution of setting a nearby phone to play back their noise pollution with a delay or loop to make their shit unlistenable. Others can join to compound the cacophony & turn it into a communal activity.

I can kind of see some people, especially with face time or something, using it for safety purposes. Like if they are out walking or something.

Kind of like making noises on a trail to avoid bears.

But when you're with the herd, you're probably safer than you think.

Big "and then everybody in class clapped" energy here.