Cell Phones: A New One on Me, Yesterday

[MineralMan]

So, I'm used to seeing people looking at their phones rather than paying attention to their surroundings. I'm even used to encountering people who appear to be talking to themselves until I see the bluetooth earpiece. Yesterday, though, I encountered a new thing while shopping at my local supermarket.

A young woman pushing a shopping cart was talking loudly with someone on her cell phone in speakerphone mode. We were in the same aisle of the store, so I could hear both sides of the inane conversation she was having with some disembodied voice coming from her phone at the maximum volume setting. I heard nothing of significance, of course, just the usual banter about mundane stuff.

Oddly enough, she pushed her cart down the entire aisle, and never even looked at the goods on the shelves in that aisle, nor picked up anything to put in her shopping cart. I remain puzzled by this incident, really. Why would anyone expose both sides of a telephone conversation to public listening in a public place?

I've never seen anyone doing this before, and hope not to see it again.

[riversedge]

1. so many are not aware of their surroundings, nor that the speaker phone is on. Unfortunately, I

have seen lots on public bus rides. They walk on, sit down with speakers blaring.

[MineralMan]

5. I'm sure you're right. Situational awareness is getting

more and more rare, I think. A lack of concern about the people around you is also growing. I don't really care to listen in, involuntarily, on other people's conversations. I was taught that it was improper to eavesdrop on other people. In this situation, though, it was impossible not to hear the conversation.

I'm not someone who would point such a thing out to a stranger, but I really don't think it's a good idea to expose your personal interactions to random people. Just on that basis, alone, I think what that person was doing was foolish, at best.

[snooper2]

2. Maybe the phone call was a distraction because she was checking out someones ass in front of her?

[RKP5637]

8. LOL!!!

[MineralMan]

11. Well, thank goodness my narrow ass was behind her, then.

I certainly don't want anyone checking that out. It could be dangerous to their mental well-being.

[randome]

3. I've seen that before. It's annoying. I love the hands-off freedom of Bluetooth.

Occasionally someone in a coffee shop will play some stupid video on their laptop without using earbuds or bluetooth. That's annoying, also.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]“If you're not committed to anything, you're just taking up space.”
Gregory Peck, Mirage (1965)[/center][/font][hr]

[3catwoman3]

4. I remember well wondering if there had been a sudden...

...massive increase in people suffering from auditory hallucinations when the bluetooth type devices first came out. I was seeing all manner of people in public places who, for all the world, seemed to be talking to themselves, sometimes quite animatedly, and with hand gestures.

Bad enough to hear one side of someone else's conversation. No way I want to hear both. Very rude.

[randr]

6. Phone booths could make a come back

as places for people to have a private conversation

[Wounded Bear]

7. Obviously a Russian spy...

undercover, talking in code. You just allowed the Russians to get our nuclear codes, you idiot. You should have confronted her.

[Demit]

9. Just proves that you can't focus your brain to do two things at once

—selecting grocery items and talking on the phone. Good thing she wasn't driving, I guess.

[HAB911]

10. unfortunately nothing surprises me anymore

[librechik]

12. radiation--me no like ear brain burn (the damage has been done, obviously)

maybe it's silly, but it's no different than walking and talking with someone inanely in the store, is it? The phone instantly gets hot and I can't hear the caller anyway. My hubby uses an earbud, but I am a Techie Troglodyte.

I'm sorry if I bothered you. I'm so old I have no boundaries.

[Runningdawg]

13. I just recently discovered

you can somehow hook your cell phone to your cars sound system and I am not talking about playing music.
The neighbor next door sits in his car and talks and the cars sound system blasts both sides of the conversation all over the neighborhood. This is fairly new and I am optimistic that as some of the parents become aware of the language and subjects their children are being exposed to, it will end.

[MineralMan]

14. That's funny, really. I can just imagine sitting at a traffic

light and listening to someone talking to someone else about last night's sexual conquest or the surgery they just had. So far, I've not experienced such a thing, but I can imagine that I might at any time. One of our cars has this capability, designed for hands-free cell phone use, but I can't imagine using it at full volume with the windows down.

My wife's phone is synced up with the car's audio system, but I can't remember the last time she used it on the road.

There's quite an opportunity here for entertaining times at the traffic signal.