Why Mobile Phones Are Annoying 519
griffinn writes "Jakob Neilsen recently conducted a study comparing the perceived annoyance level of two commuters having a face-to-face conversation and one commuter talking on the mobile phone. Interestingly enough, subjects were also asked whether the ring tone is annoying, and people didn't find the ring to be particularly bad."
They're annoying because... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not Nielsen's Study (Score:3, Insightful)
Ringers not most annoying? I think not. (Score:2, Insightful)
As I regularly deal with theatrical performances of all different natures I see the dismay that people have for the damn things-- Even different amounts of annoyance with different ringtones.
The more bubbly and in-your-face, the more people become agitated if the phone isn't shut-up immediately.
I hate it... (Score:4, Insightful)
--
Retail Retreat [retailretreat.com]
Cell phone courtesy is easy... (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, the ring's not the problem (Score:3, Insightful)
The ringing isn't really the problem. The real problem is this:
john: so you see, I had to go see him yesterday.
Peter: yeah, I know what you mean [ring ring]. Hang on a sec there John... HELLO! YES! HI SWEETY HOW ARE YOU? WHERE ARE YOU? WHEEEERE?! CAN'T HEAR YOU, GOING UNDER A TUNNEL!! WHAAAT?
(Well, and of course the ringing)
Personally (Score:3, Insightful)
Phones that just beep or emulate a land line phone ringing is acceptable, but I totally hate those 2 tone mangled excuses of popular music people call ring tones.
Take the vibrating alert.. Thats a good start. Why not improve on it? like make a little ring or bracelet or pen or whatever and make that vibrate too? Or maybe even a watch strap? It informs you of a call and is non annoying at the same time.
Re:Ringtones? (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree, those ringtones are damn annoying.
However, I've come to realize the value of a unique ringtone. Often, when a cell phone goes off, everyone is pulling their phone out of their pocket, thinking Is it mine?. If your ringtone is different from the norm, then you can sit their with a smug smile on your face whilst others are checking their phones.
Using only plain ringtones, its rather difficult to be able to have a somewhat unique ringtone. Having musical ringtones makes that option much more accessible.
Still, I would much prefer to have short musical scores rather than long rings. And I agree, it is annoying, but I think of it as a necessary evil if I want my own ringtone.
If someone can think of another way to allow for seemingly endless variety in ringtones, I'd take that option any day.
Re:I hate it... (Score:5, Insightful)
I wish people on cell phones would be more courteous, and only take calls where acceptable, and then only speak as loud as they need too.
My general rule of thumb is to move to a place where a pay phone (for those of us old enough to know what that is) would naturally be placed and then talk as if I were on a pay phone.
For example, in the airport find a spot in a hallway or in a corner and turn your back to the crowd. In a restaurant (even a fast food restaurant), take the call and quickly move outside or to a deserted area.
It just shows respect for those around you.
Re:Ringtones? (Score:4, Insightful)
People really need to learn to use the vibrate function more often and spare the rest of us. I know the only time my phone makes any noise is when the battery is low, and thats only because I can't turn that particular beep off. Its a courtesy thats sadly lacking, keeping cell phones discreet and quiet.
Re:They're annoying because... (Score:1, Insightful)
Yeah, because the people who talk on cell phones do this too, right?
Re:Ringers not most annoying? I think not. (Score:5, Insightful)
On the contrary. I believe most would find the ring tone to be most annoying.
The funny thing is that they have done a controlled study, and you haven't. No matter what you believe until you actually do a controlled study you're opinion would seem to be wrong.
Re:Not Nielsen's Study (Score:2, Insightful)
Why mobiles are more annoying (Score:5, Insightful)
If two people are having a face to face conversation in a language in which you are fluent, then you can hear both sides of the conversation. You can then make a fully-informed decision just how much attention to pay to it.
If one person is on a mobile phone, having one side of a conversation in a language in which you are fluent, it can drive you crazy trying to work out what is going on. You probably are devoting more attention to it than you can afford, and this also increases annoyance.
Two people talking face to face in a language in which you are not fluent, can also be extremely annoying.
Why 'phone conversations are more annoying (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Very interesting hypotehsis... (Score:4, Insightful)
I find it funny that the ringtone on my mobile is set to sound like one of those ooooold phones that actually had a bell inside of it. So my mobile phone sounds more like a "phone" than the beepy-ring thing that the handset plugged into my laneline does.
Now if I could just find a kind of antique-finished retro looking mobile phone that was still small, with maybe a metal casing instead of the uber-futuristic blinky plastic crab... that would be spiffy.
Re:You know what is annoying (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh, wait: No.
I get a phone for free when I renew my subscription. I don't need a camera, but having one always with me is pretty neat, for the price. Your concern is obviously a valid one, but basic phones are widely available here in the Netherlands. While the US is quite backwards in the sense that you don't have a homogenous network across the nation, I can't imagine you don't have a full range of products.
Cell phones aren't annoying. (Score:5, Insightful)
Will people stop focusing on the wrong thing (cell phone) and return focus to the actual source of the problem (asshole)?
Re:Cell phone courtesy is easy... (Score:5, Insightful)
Cellphone courtesy is easy, as is courtesy in general, but you miss the point. The point is that sadly, a lot of people are total assholes in all aspects of their lives, so why would they make any exceptions for their cellphone?
Volume and experimentation (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm surprised the author made no reference to the relative volumes of the mobile phone converstation and the face to face conversations. Was the mobile phone conversation the same volume as the normal conversation, the loud conversation, or somewhere in between? If it was the same volume as the loud conversation, the would support the conclusions drawn by the author, that annoyance is primarily due to the exagggerated volume. If it was the same volume as the normal conversation, something else about mobile phones is annoying people.
I suspect that peoples expectations have some affect as well. People who have been annoyed by mobile phones before (ie everyone
Re:Cell phones aren't annoying. (Score:4, Insightful)
Asshole has such an over-developed sense of self-importance that he thinks his conversation is not only more important than the peace of the people around him, but that the pathetic rabble will be impressed by his long, loud conversation. Or perhaps it's just that so many folk don't have any respect for the people around them.
The thing I really hate about modern phones is that so many have cameras. Take, for instance, the proliferation of twats in pubs and clubs pointing the phone at any half dressed/half attractive woman in sight, aiming up skirts and down tops for the leering benefit of equally twattish friends elsewhere.
Speculation: pattern recognition (Score:3, Insightful)
Or is that just me?
Death to Nextel! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:my pet hate (Score:2, Insightful)
Get over yourselves. (Score:3, Insightful)
Though to be fair, when did people discover that they had to look all macho and shit talking into a phone held sideways, away from and in front of their face?
And my homies - when you go the movies, why do you all need to wear the headsets? Do you think you're on Pimp My Ride?
Nope, phones aren't annoying, people are.
Re:Apparently... yes! (Score:5, Insightful)
I've had people who are so anal about answering any phone call that they go berserk at me when I don't answer my own phone (and not because they were annoyed at the ring - I have it on a very low volume - but because they simply can't accept the notion that a phone call might not always be important).
Frankly, it doesn't take much for me to not answer a call - bad time of day, bad weather, failure to send caller-ID, idiot person calling. If it's important, they'll leave a message on the voicemail. Or better still, email me.
Re:Try living in Asia for a while... (Score:3, Insightful)
I live in Japan, and what you say is true. But it's simply because people are super-polite here. They don't have loud converations, cell-phone or otherwise, on trains or buses. It would be rude.
But its a common sight to see people riding a bike while texting or using the internet on their phone.
Re:Carry a jammer (Score:3, Insightful)
Dangerous you say. How in the world is blocking someones phone call harming anyone? Well, what if, when you're busy enjoying your peace & quiet, someone else nearby is without cell phone service. Now what if, that someone has a mission-critical position somehwere (Doctor, EMT, Fireman, or even a IT sys admin). Lets say there's a problem (Operation, car accident, house fire, or the latest varient of Netsky) and one of these people NEEDS to be contacted IMMEDIATELY. But of course, they can't. Why? Because in your selfishness, you decided that you can't be bothered with the minor inconvience of listening to someones conversation.
Look, I know cell phone users can be annoying, but is that any reason to punish the whole lot? We don't close down an entire highway just because someone is driving like an ass, do we? No, we try to be understanding of people and let it pass. In the same sense, we can't just block all cell phones in a certain area just because of one or two inconsiderate users.
Re: Stuff I Learned From My Dog (Score:3, Insightful)
You could, of course, argue that they are, but a more normal interpretation of someone yacking into a digital device is not a conversation, but simply someone yacking into a digital device. Any dog would tell you the same thing.
Put another way, there's little discernable difference between someone talking on a cell phone and talking into a dictaphone, muttering to himself, making rude noises, or reading aloud from a book. The deference given to people holding private conversations in public spaces is due in large part to the natural instict to give up your minority rights (only one of you) to the majority (the two people having a conversation). If there's just the two of you, the guy with the digital device doesn't deserve majority rule, regardless of how many digital devices he's got powered on.
Re:Ringtones? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Carry a jammer (Score:3, Insightful)
they dont use a cellphone, or dont use a cellphone exclusively. there's semaphones for doctors, and several other emergency channels (or at least there are here). cellphone is not an emergency channel, and should never be used for any life-threatening stuff. if it's on a cellphone, it can wait an hour.
Re:Ringtones? (Score:3, Insightful)
And, no offense, but it makes me want to award some "Mr/Ms Individualistic Git" to everyone who can say "I aggree, it is annoying, but... [insert half-arsed excuse for continuing to be annoying]". Here's a crazy idea: if you do realize you're annoying the living heck out of the people around you... how about trying to stop being annoying? Yeah, I know, crazy concept.
Re:They're annoying because... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Ringtones? (Score:3, Insightful)
Stupid annoying beepy tunes (Score:3, Insightful)
Quite the reverse -- these days, a plain ringtone is unique! Everyone else has stupid annoying beepy tunes.
It's a shame, because there's lots of scope for sounds that are distinctive and recognisable but not annoying. I've tried lots of alarm sounds on my PDA, so I know what works for me. For example, the original Star Trek communicator chirp is great, not because it's geeky, but because it's extremely easy to hear but also very discreet. Lots of other short, sharp sounds work just as well.
And yet phones are stuck with stupid annoying beepy tunes. [fx: sigh]
(Of course, there's plenty of choice -- if you don't like the stupid annoying beepy tune, you can always choose... another stupid annoying beepy tune!)
I disagree (Score:3, Insightful)
Once the caller or callee makes it clear that the conversation is none of your business, just retort saying that by yapping so audibly on the phone in the restaurant/at the movies/whatever, they MADE it your business.
It's truely the "Yeah. Uh-huh. Oh really ? Uh-huh. OK. No. No, I don't think so. Uh-huh. Oh, yeah, totally." phone 'conversations' that get on my nerves most.
As for ringtones, they're not so bad. You 'need' them to be different if you want to be sure that's your phone ringing. I do sincerely encourage people to use the 'crescendo' ring volume option, though.
My girlfriend's mom has got to have the loudest cellphone ever. We could hear it as we were walking out to the car at the street!
(And then she complains about a T.V. being 'too loud' when the dialogue is barely audible. Go fig.)
The rudest are Nextel users. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ringtones? (Score:2, Insightful)
Each cell phone maker (Motorola and Nokia most notoriously) has there own distrinctive ring. For example, If my friends Motorola V60 rings, everyone with a Motorola v60, T720, v120, IXX, etc. reaches for there phone because EVERY motorola made in the last 2 years has one ring in comon. This can be cause for mass confusion in offices. The easy solution to this is to have a distinctive ringtone.
My personal objection to this is people who have no cell phone etiquite. IE, people who don't silence there phones in theaters, movies, busniess meetings, etc.
Another explanation (Score:4, Insightful)
To put it mildly, the main "cultural difference" is that there it's ok to be an annoying f*ck to those around you. If it doesn't involve cell phones, it involves talking way too loudly, having an extremely loud party in a densely packed block of flats, etc. And if someone doesn't like it, fsck them, it's not your problem. Extreme individualism was pretty much _the_ way to survive communism, and the poverty that came with it.
Now to get back to your point, methinks the same must apply to China, then.
Sorry, no matter how much I want to find it an excuse, there is _no_ bloody way to say that it ought to be socially acceptable to talk loudly on the phone in a movie theatre. I went there to see and _listen_ to the bloody movie, not to hear a dozen retards talking on their phone. I don't care if it's face-to-face or on the phone. Just shut the fsck up. I've paid to listen to the actors, not to you.
It's not overreacting, it's not shunning "an obnoxious show of money", it's merely asking that you show at least some minimal respect to your fellow humans. All I'm asking is that you let me watch the bloody movie, that's all.
So again: what's different in the West is that people have learned to give each other at least some minimal respect. Whole systems of social customs have existed for the sole reason of allowing people to live without getting on each other's nerves every two minutes.
Microphone placement on phones is one problem (Score:3, Insightful)
On many of the small non-flip phones, the microphone ends up being way up near the middle of your cheek, about four inches from your mouth. So even if it's a sensitive microphone, there is a certain psychological tendancy to speak loud since the mike is farther away.
Another problem with this design is the necessarily sensitive microphone picks up pretty much every ambient sound around you, so the caller can hear your environment and you also have to talk loudly to compete any noise in the vicinity.
The solution? Flip phones, which put the microphone right at your mouth like when using a conventional (non-wireless) phone. You can speak softly and know the microphone is picking you up, and it's much easier to reject ambient sounds.
Of course, the cheapest phones will never be the flip-designs, so we'll have people yelling for a while...
-Z
You meant it as a joke, (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Carry a jammer (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh, bullshit.
If you have life-and-death notification requirements, you shouldn't be relying on a cell anyway. It's not like coverage is perfect. As somsone else pointed out, a pager is a much better choice.
Somehow the human race managed to get along just fine in '95 without cell phone users yakking all over the place. It damn well does not *need* cells.
I realize that jammers are disruptive -- they interrupt the electromagnetic spectrum around themselves. However, cell phone users are also disruptive -- they produce audio interference around themselves. Frankly, I find the needs of the person aggravated by the cell more compelling than the needs of the person who wants to talk on his new toy.
I wish every third person carried a jammer, and that the moment some jackass started being inconsiderate, he got jammed by all the people around him.
Re:So that explains it (Score:3, Insightful)
I liked this sentence from Nielsen's report: "It's striking, however, that mobile-phone conversations are judged more negatively than loud conversations."
What's striking to me is that Nielsen, after many years of working in human interfaces, doesn't seem to quite get the idea of statistical significance [wikipedia.org]. From the reported data, the values for loud and mobile-phone sure looked to me to be statistically indistinguishable.
Re:Cell phone annoyance time in theaters (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't even buy the argument that you're draining their batteries quicker by forcing their phone to look harder for a signal
Re:Cell phones aren't annoying. (Score:3, Insightful)
Assholes are annoying.
However, air horns are a tremendous asshole facilitator.
Re:Ringtones? (Score:4, Insightful)
I propose a world wide ban on walkie talkie phones.
cordless phones (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't think its the cell phone so much as its people feeling left out. They want to be nosey but can't because they only hear one side. What if 2 people were talking face to face and one was using sign language and the other was speaking out loud. Would the be as annoying to other people around them as a cell phone?
Re: Jammers are for people... (Score:3, Insightful)
Really? IME, the current solution is to sit there fuming in silence, and then bitch about mobile phones in places like SlashDot...
Seriously, does anyone actually ask nicely in situations like that? What happens? (I don't expect it works every time, but as a matter of manners I think you should probably try it first anyway.)
Re:They're annoying because... (Score:3, Insightful)
The US is a large country, with places that are highly populated, and places that aren't. There are mountains, and some of the tallest buildings in the world. Cell phone companies concentrate their coverage efforts where they think it will help them the most. Cities are usually covered, but sometimes there are dead spots due to buildings. The countryside... It depends on the area. How far you are from a major city/highway will play into it, as well as the population density, and the economy of the area.
Also, in Europe most, if not all, of the cell phone companies use the same tech, which means they can share networks. The US was one of the pioneers in cell phones, so there are companies that use gen-1 tech, gen-2 tech, gen-3 tech... And the networks don't work together, which makes it hard for companies to work together to extend networks.
The 'Can you hear me now? - Good.' is from an ad that plays over here: one company advertises that they have coverage nearly everywhere with that tagline.
Priggish Luddite (Score:2, Insightful)
I am talking about people who are, for example, talking on their cell phone the entire time they are walking around the supermarket. No, they aren't asking what the other person would like to eat. They are saying "Yeah." "What are you watching." "I like vanilla." Meaningless drivel. Are people so afraid of themselves these days that they can't even walk through the supermarket "alone"?
Re:No, it's the way the human brain works. (Score:2, Insightful)
It would be cool if they could make the person on the other end of the conversation sound like people on the phone in Peanuts cartoons. Unintelligible but expressive. Waa wa wa wa...etc. ;)
Re:Try living in Asia for a while... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sorry mate but that's not the way it is.
Do you think people don't go loco on people in cinemas here that talk during the movie? Or run around all the time? Or make loud noises? When last someone in my vicinity did that - during LotR 3 - I nearly threw them off the balcony. Gave them one loud SHUT UP and they buckled and didn't make any more sounds. Not because I'm so frightening, but because they realized what they did was idiotic.
I can only wonder why the people you describe don't mind cell phone use (and probably other annoyances) when they paid to see the movie... Are they perhaps so used to such annoyances that they don't hear them anymore? Like a computer geek who doesn't hear the fan of his computer anymore because he hears it all day? I can only wonder.
Re:I think it may be something else (Score:3, Insightful)
Another annoying thing about cellphones is that they are only capable of half-duplex conversations. This means that you can't talk and hear the other person at the same time. It often leads to bouts of "what?!?" and "Could you repeat that please!?"
Combine all this with the delay and randomly dropped signals, and you have a very annoying way to communicate. I can tell there is delay because some cell phones have loud speakers and sensitive receivers, and on occasion I can hear my own echo from the caller's phone. There is about 1/4 to 1/2 second difference.
Cell phone towers are only 5-10 miles away from the phones at most. This translates to about 0.00005 seconds of delay. Where is the lag in the conversation? I only talk to people in my local calling area, and I still get the delay!
Instead of upgrading the cell phones with new features, why don't the phone companies upgrade their damn networks?