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."
Ringtones (Score:4, Funny)
The bad part is the loud speakers that really dont need a phone in the first place.
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
I think it may be something else (Score:4, Interesting)
On a regular telephone you can hear yourself coming out of the speaker end just a little bit. I don't know if this is because your voice is travelling through the hollow plastic, or if the telephone system is actually designed to do that. Either way, how loud you are hearing yourself compared to the other person helps to give you some feedback into how loudly you actually need to be talking.
On a cellphone, your voice just kind of travels off into nowhere. You don't hear yourself at all coming from the phone. Hence, you feel the need to talk louder, and louder, until you realize that , yes, you are talking loud enough.
This is what happens to me all the time. I always feel that little "urge" that I'm not talking loud enough, and so I sometimes try to actively talk below my comfort level of loudness.
No, it's the way the human brain works. (Score:5, Interesting)
I disagree -- I think I buy into the article pretty strongly, which says that volume is a minimal issue. I've tried paying attention to what irritates me about cell phones when someone is conversing on one, and my feelings click with what the study says.
The problem is that normally, we respond when someone says something to us. Our brain is cued by it.
The request-for-attention pattern this follows is someone saying something near us, followed by a period of silence as they wait for our response. As the period of silence increases, the likelihood that the message was directed at us (and we should respond and haven't) increases (hence the common pattern of someone saying something, stopping, and two seconds later someone looking up and saying "uh, did you say something to me" -- the "request for attention" sequence was sent).
We are pretty good about ignoring conversation -- sitting in a crowded lunchroom, it's easy to let background noise fade into the background.
The problem is that cell phone speakers follow our brain's "I am requesting your attention" almost exactly. So we're sitting here uncomfortably having someone grab our attention every two seconds or so. It's extremely disruptive when you're trying to think about something else. The only real fix is to start ignoring people that *are* trying to get our attention, which isn't great either.
I would say that the primary issue is that we need a sensory input that would allow us to determine when someone is talking on the phone. Then our brain can learn to distinguish between "cell phone speaker -- ignorable" and "someone trying to get your attention".
I think that a good solution would be to provide (surprise, more noise) a buzz, a sort of masked noise from the phone. When the person on the other end of the phone is talking, we get an unintelligable but audible buzz. It would be crucial that (a) the buzz not be an annoying annoying, (b) the buzz not be easily picked up by microphones (especially cell phones, so that feedback doesn't occur -- a filter is necessary), (c) that cell phone manufacturers standardize on such a buzz sound, so that people talking near each other on different cell phones don't interfere -- this would also allow people to more quickly learn to identify cell phones. I think that cell phone disruptiveness is largely a technical problem, not a social problem (though people talking in movie theaters still require a swift kick to the nuts).
Can you hear me now? (Score:3, Interesting)
With other vendors that use TDMA [wikipedia.org] such as ATT, Cingular, TMobile they have to electronic introduce background noise because this technology doesn't continually transmit. They introduce clicks and pops to simulate background noise. This gives you the perception that you have to yell to keep the other persons attention.
Re:Can you hear me now? (Score:4, Informative)
The problem is phones without active noise reduction. My T39m works fine with normal-voice-level on a bus. I only have issues in very windy conditions.
Re:Can you hear me now? (Score:4, Informative)
"All of the PCS technologies try to minimize battery consumption during calls by keeping the transmission of unnecessary data to a minimum. The phone decides whether or not you are presently speaking, or if the sound it hears is just background noise. If the phone determines that there is no intelligent data to transmit, it blanks the audio and it reduces the transmitter duty cycle (in the case of TDMA) or the number of transmitted bits (in the case of CDMA). When the audio is blanked, your caller would suddenly find themselves listening to "dead air", and this may cause them to think the call has dropped."
Which comes back around to, if phones had decent microphones -- you wouldn't be expecting the rush of awful background noise all the time.
And no, they don't introduce clicks and pops -- my phone routinely goes silent -- I would blame that on crappy phones.
Ringtones? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ringtones? (Score:5, Funny)
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:Ringtones? (Score:5, Funny)
Text-To-Speech: "Mr. ComboyNeal, telephone for you, Sir" in a husky female voice. Many phones already have loudspeaker abilities and advanced ring tone generation. Use them for good instead of evil.
Re:Ringtones? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
I've got the perfect ring tone (Score:5, Funny)
That's why I'm barred from ever owning a cell phone.
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
The Solution (Score:3, Funny)
Wear headphones. Only you hear your phone going off, you can have the most annoying tune in the world and it still won't annoy others. Next on the list of annoyances is thinking people have to SPEAK VERY LOUDLY in their phones, which is even true in many cases.
I am for text messaging - imagine a usable keyboard and a permanent (e.g. pay for traffic, not time) IP connection. Just chat away anywhe
Re:Ringtones? (Score:4, Interesting)
Normally you can go down the list of features on a new cellphone, and almost all of them will make the provider money in some way or another.
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:Ringtones? (Score:4, Troll)
To compare, how many people do you hear making calls to say something like "be there in 15", then keep talking for a solid 5 or 10 minutes? I get this all the time when i'm on the train and it bugs the crap out of me, even more so when it's a person sitting right next to me talking so loudly that I can hear their entire conversation though my headphones.
Re:Ringtones? (Score:4, Insightful)
I propose a world wide ban on walkie talkie phones.
Re:Ringtones? (Score:3, Funny)
Contact information? Vibrate feature? MOBILITY? You kids and your damned newfangled gizmos.
Give me a 30-pound Bell rotary-dialer with a length of RJ-11 coming out the bottom of it, that's a REAL man's phone.
Cell phone annoyance time in theaters (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Cell phone annoyance time in theaters (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Cell phone annoyance time in theaters (Score:3, Informative)
I'd carry a personal jammer, if they were legal, and flip it on when I was at a theater.
Re:Cell phone annoyance time in theaters (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't even buy the argument that you're draining their batteries quicker
Re:Cell phone annoyance time in theaters (Score:5, Interesting)
I have never heard a real cellphone go off after that ad.
Apparently... yes! (Score:5, Funny)
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.
They're annoying because... (Score:5, Insightful)
Two way (Score:4, Interesting)
I agree. What's even more annoying is those two way plans that work like walkie talkies. In such a situation, not only do you have to listen to the person talking but also their companion over the phone.
" when I want to listen in, I only hear half of the conversation "
Trust me, unless you are with a friend who's talking to another friend, you really don't.
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
Talking too loud.. Here's why.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Two way (Score:4, Funny)
I find your ideas intriguing.
If you ever decide to run for government, you've got one hell of an interesting platform there.
Re:They're annoying because... (Score:5, Informative)
Not Nielsen's Study (Score:3, Insightful)
I hate it... (Score:4, Insightful)
--
Retail Retreat [retailretreat.com]
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.
Close -- suggestion to fix impoliteness (Score:4, Interesting)
The issue is that of the protocol.
When a cell phone is called, it should enter the ringing state. At that point, one of two buttons can be hit -- "accept -- pending talking" and "reject". Currently, I believe that people usually just turn off their phone to do a "reject", so that much functionality is in place. The protocol should allow a "accepted, but cannot talk yet state". At that point, the person with the cell can extricate themselves from whatever situation they're in, and can find a quiet place to handle the call. They'd then hit the "ready to talk" button.
This could interoperate with older, non-compliant phones by sending a text message (or brief audio clip saying "hold on") and then either terminating the call and calling back when "ready to talk" is hit, or simply opening the connection and leaving the phone speakers muted after the initial clip) until "ready to talk" is hit.
Re:I hate it... (Score:5, Interesting)
Normal phones got round this by feeding back some of the signal from the microphone to the earpiece, so you could hear yourself speaking a little. Unfortunately, mobiles don't seem to do this.
Cell phone courtesy is easy... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Cell phone courtesy is easy... (Score:3, Funny)
Oh I tried that, but the stain on trousers is so embarassing....
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?
So that explains it (Score:5, Funny)
I think these guys have been conducting this experiment on the train I catch to work for the last two years.
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.
Very interesting hypotehsis... (Score:4, Interesting)
Although, I can't believe they don't think the rings are annoying. I just wish a phone could have at least one decent normal ringer now... I don't want a song, but there really aren't options other than those now. The most recent phone we bought was for my fiance and all the rings it came with were songs. We figured we'd download something normal and only found more songs. Ultimately, we just picked the song ringer that sounded the least annoying.
-N
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:Very interesting hypotehsis... (Score:5, Funny)
Obtain an old 1960s rotary dial telephone, as found in all British households (since at the time, the phone company was the GPO and were the only people to be allowed to connect phones, so the range was extremely limited. It did include the Ericofon though).
Inside the phone, insert the guts of a cheap GSM cell phone. Build some electronics to change the LD pulsing from the rotary dial into something suitable to cause the cellphone to dial. Maybe add an extra button as a 'Send' button for the cell phone. Have the loudspeaker of the phone which the ringtone normally plays through connected to a circuit that rings the phone bell.
Catch the train.
Receive phone call. "Rrrring rring". Pull out old phone from bag, place on table. Lift receiver.
"HI I'M ON THE TRAIN!"
Phone a friend with the rotary dial, too.
Observe looks of fellow passengers.
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,
The annoying part (Score:3, Interesting)
is the loud speakers. I used to see the same thing with construction supervisor types in restaraunts with radiophones, back before the modern mobils became possible. Now they do it with mobile phones, along with lots of other people who never had access to a radiophone.
And of course, some people talk at the top of their voice even when they're sitting face-to-face with the people they're talking to. (And have a tendency to be complaining about their family problems or some other crap you particularly don't want to hear.)
The ringers are annoying during a movie, concert, lecture, exam, etc., but much more often it is the overly loud yakking that annoys. I hate sitting in a restaraunt and having to raise my voice to talk to someone at the table with me because someone four tables away is hollering into a cell.
Correction (Score:5, Informative)
Original article: Andrew Monk, Jenni Carroll, Sarah Parker, and Mark Blythe: "Why are Mobile Phones Annoying?" Behaviour and Information Technology, vol. 23, no. 1, 2004, pp. 33-41.
It's the people on the phones (Score:5, Funny)
Yet.
However, one time I was in a bathroom and the guy in the next stall took a call on his cell phone. I immediately made all sorts of grunting, straining, and moaning noises as if I were trying to pass a moose. He hung up after twenty seconds, and before he could say anything to me, I thanked him and returned to the quiet matter at hand.
Re:It's the people on the phones (Score:3, Funny)
That usually gets the phone hung up pretty quickly :)
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.
You know what is annoying (Score:3, Interesting)
These manufactures really aren't thinking of the part of the market that buys the most cell phones, and that is the corporations, and most corporations have strict guidlines against cameras. So it really blows, and I hope they come to they senses and stop marketing to the teeny-boppers. At least they could put out comparable phone that doesn't have that camera.
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 acros
Re:You know what is annoying (Score:3, Informative)
Or you could get an N-gage :)
Here is South-East Asia (Score:5, Interesting)
This is why public cell-phone ethics is a serious issue here.In general, the older ones have a tendency to talk too loudly, however I do noticed that the younger generations have learnt to speak as unobtrusively as possible, maybe realising the phone-speaker can actually pickup their voice without having to shout across the room.
My 2 cents
Re:Here is South-East Asia (Score:3, Informative)
What really annoys me is the people who play their games on their phones with the volume turned up, although you can do this with a gameboy too.
Try living in Asia for a while... (Score:5, Interesting)
And why not? In China, as well as most parts of Asia, cellphones are not an annoyance in any way. They're just a part of life. I think in the West, cellphones were initially thought to be annoying because they were an obnoxious show of money, and this has carried on to this day. In China and South Korea, having a cellphone is part of life and is not considered as annoying.
Methink the people surveyed here thought a cellphone conversation was more annoying than a face-to-face conversation simply because it's, well, a cellphone conversation. We still tiptoe around cellphones in the West. For all I can see, this annoyance is purely cultural.
(Earlier today, I saw a perfect picture of modern-day Shanghai: in a sea of bicycles, a man riding, and a woman seated in the Chinese way in equilibrium on the back of the bike with both her legs on one side... And as the man pedals his old rusted bike, the girl behind her is merrily thumb-keying SMS messages to her friends.)
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.
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.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
who the #$% is half handsome? (Score:3, Funny)
I think it's worse when they silence the ring instead of turning off the phone. Then the same person on the other ends calls back repeatedly wondering why the owner won't pick up their phone! Naturally the ringer goes off a couple of times and is a total distraction...this happens in my college courses so often I've gotten fairly irate though it provides me with this story.
I'm sitting in a lecture hall
Re:What gets me about cell phones (Score:3, Interesting)
My solution to that little conundrum was to put my phone on vibrate the moment I powered it on the first time, and I haven't changed the setting since. I've never heard it ring. I do realize that solution doesn't work for everyone, but my phone is always with me.
Anyway, I know a lot of people who set back and forth between ring/silent several times a day, and perhaps they just forgot which mode it's in. Could check, though, I suppose...
It's only a matter of habit (Score:5, Interesting)
Let me first start by saying that I agree mobile phone use does have its etiquette, and certain limits should be respected (i.e. volume of the ring tone in a quiet place, such as a library).
But I really think it's only a matter of habit. I believe if an American lived in Sweden for a while (a country with one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates), they would quickly get used to hearing phones ringing and people talking on them all the time, without feeling necessarily annoyed. It's the constant reinforcement by others in US society that mobile phones are in fact extremely annoying that maintains this perception.
It's almost as if people go out of their way to get annoyed at someone talking on the phone. Because logically speaking, and as the article states, if you only hear half the conversation, you should only be bothered half as much. And if listening to just one side of the conversation is bothering you, then why are you listening in the first place?
Re:It's only a matter of habit (Score:3, Interesting)
My (negative) views on the use of mobile phones by some people is based on living in the UK.
Actually, I agree with a lot of your points, I'm probably more easily angered than you ;)
However, your last point: then why are you listening in the first place? deserves a short response: because I have no choice. Two people holding a conversation at normal volume is easy to ignore; one person shouting at a plastic box taped to his head - that's not so easy to ignore.
Someone mentioned earlier in the thread that
Re:It's only a matter of habit (Score:4, Interesting)
Perhaps the companies what you to scream into phone just to show off?
As Don Jolly would say (Score:5, Funny)
Hello. HELLO.
I'm writing on slashdot.SLASHDOT
Nah its rubbish
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)
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 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.
Re:Cell phones aren't annoying. (Score:3, Insightful)
Assholes are annoying.
However, air horns are a tremendous asshole facilitator.
Why mobile phones are annoying? (Score:4, Interesting)
-The insipid ringtones (hi, Britney!)
-The shouting
-The uniformity of the conversation (I'M ON A TRAIN! WHERE ARE YOU?)
-The blandness of what's being said (YES WELL I WAS SAYING TO MARGE THAT I REALLY LIKE THE FLOWERS AND MARGE SAID...)
I've noticed that the people who speak more quietly on phones tend to make a more educated and lucid impression--they stick to a conversation, for them a phone chat isn't some HYPER-/<3WL 5H1T D00D, but a tool, and they understand that they don't have to yell to be heard.
Maybe talking face to face with someone makes it easier for them to smack you upside the head when you say something idiotic.
To be perfectly honest, when idiots converse loudly in person, it's equally irritating. But then, that's probably just me.
Headset Psycho (Score:3, Funny)
It's getting harder and harder to pass yourself off as a bona-fide wack-job these days...
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
Speculation: pattern recognition (Score:3, Insightful)
Or is that just me?
One solution in movie theaters... (Score:4, Funny)
Add some radio-tracking stuff, that listens for active cell-phones, and controlls the lamps.
As soon as somebody start talking in their phone, a directed (strong!) light beem will shine on them from above, or to be techincal towards the phone, but the end result is the same.
The angry shouts from the crowd, now that they see who to blame will make that person switch of the phone within seconds
I think this is much to prefer above legalisation, it like handling animals, make the "right" choise the easy one, and all bad choises unpleasant - As soon as you behave acording to plan, you get the comfort of being left alone and not bothered.
Death to Nextel! (Score:3, Insightful)
What really bugs me about cell phones... (Score:4, Interesting)
Two things really bug me:
1) You only know half of the conversation. So, naturally, the person that you can't hear is apparently the funniest person alive, and the person on the phone can't stop laughing, or then he'll act like he can insult you, and so he does, as if he forgets you can hear him, etc.
2) You have the person over and you're hanging out with your friends and you're all having a good time, and then someone's phone rings, and they go and leave the room, or they just stay there (even worse) but they just kinda drop out of the party and all. It's like being socially antisocial or something.
Just bugs me.
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.
How to do it... (Score:3, Interesting)
One of the guys mobils rings. He looks at it and says "Sorry, I have to take this...".
He answers the phone and the conversations goes like this:
X:"Hi, this is X".
[The other part identifies it self, and obviously askes if it's interrupting anything important]
X: "No, no problem - I was bored anyway".
Cracked me up!
But there's a good bit of truths in it. When you answer your mobile phone while in company with other people, that's basicly what you are saying.
"I'm answering this call, because I care more about having a conversation with a random stanger, than this conversation I'm having with you. For not other reason that the fact that it's convinient for the stranger to talk to me now. The fact that you are wasting your time while I'm having the conversation will not mean anything to me, and I'll keep on talking as long as it take and beyond..."
Phones are annoying period. (Score:3, Interesting)
When doing service calls a few years back, I remember going to this customer and the receptionist was too busy answering the phone. After 20 minutes of "one moment, I'll be right with you" I decided to use the guest phone and call her up asking for the person I wanted to see. Manners are just out the window where phones are concerned.
Informed Consent (Score:3, Interesting)
This issue came to the forefront with Stanley Milgram's "shocking" experiment on authority, where he was trying to find out why people followed unethical orders, vis-a-viz WWII and the Holocaust. You may recall from Psych 101 that Milgram set up an experiment in which an unsuspecting victim thought he or she was shocking someone for incorrectly answering questions. I know a bit about this because I worked on Milgram's archived papers. (Some people forget that in the actual experiment, the shocks were a hoax).
Anyway, what occured to me is that reality/prank shows like Scare Tactics etc. go way beyond Milgram's experiment. I assume the only way these episodes get broadcast is that the victim, after the prank is revealed, ends up signing releases, probably in exchange for payment. But the initial trauma/annoyances the victim experiences are not consented to until afterwards. It seems like the media doesn't operate under the same ethical assumptions that science is burdened by. Offtopic, but something that occured to me reading this.
The rudest are Nextel users. (Score:3, Insightful)
Making them stop (Score:3, Funny)
Imagine:
ring-ring
Them, answering phone: Oh hi, how are you, how did last night go?
You (very loudly): I am fine. Last night was a real blast!
I guarantee they will immediately begin speaking a lot more quietly!!
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: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:Ringers not most annoying? I think not. (Score:3, Informative)
-Graham
Re:Ringers not most annoying? I think not. (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Your faith is touching - that the methodology was sound, that it wasn't constructed to produce a given result, that it was conducted as stated ...
In any case, the Slashdot audience is probably more likely to work in an office environment than the general population. Where annoying ringtones are heard:
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 on
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: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 el
Re:Carry a jammer (Score:4, Interesting)
Furthermore, if I am currently responsible for patients that may need my care at a moment's notice, for life-threatening situations, I can tell you I would *NOT* be taking in a movie, or out at a restaurant. I only go out when I'm off-service, or my pager's signed out to someone else in/by the hospital.
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:Here in CH (Score:4, Interesting)
So I appreciate the fact that you said "most of the people" instead of "all the people".
What's really funny is that a lot of people using cheap wired mikes end up holding the damn mouthpiece up to their face anyway while talking
Regardless, I haven't seen a single bluetooth headset where the battery doesn't go to shit after a few months of use--my Sony Ericcson, while it was useful during its (short) life, is now basically a fairly expensive bit of drawer-filling junk.
Re:my pet hate (Score:3, Funny)
That reminds me of the time I was at the IETF and everyone was playing 'who has the koolest new gadget'. Jeff Schiller was showing off his shortwave band radio the size of a matchbox, someone else had got an iPaq to run Linux, the next guy had a Zaurus running PocketPC, the