Quote:
Originally Posted by Stitchawl
Question: Why can two people have a conversation in public and no one takes notice (unless, of course, it's overly loud, which is a different story,) but when one person and a cell phone have a conversation so many people get up in arms? Two people on a bus talking to each other is fine, but one person and a phone makes people angry. Ever think of the psychopathology behind the reason? 
Stitchawl |
Because, for whatever reason, most people on cellphones are speaking quite loudly. I don't know what it is, and I'm quite sure I do it, too; but people are much, much louder on phones than they are when speaking to someone sitting next to them or across the table.
I have, actually, thought about the psychology behind this. (Psychopathology is the diagnosis and treatment of mental DISORDERS, or the study of ABNORMAL behavior.) Let's face it, for years, in the early days, the folks who carried cellphones either
were quite important, or wanted to
feel quite important. There's still something about it that screams "Look at me! Look how important I am! Look how I can't be away from my business for even ONE SECOND!"
I think that this irks people; self-important jerks advertising their own importance by making sure that they have the latest, greatest phone and conduct their business loudly--so everyone can not only
see how important they are, but
HEAR it, as well. The flip side are people who just have to conduct every aspect of their personal life in public, which is, rather than self-important, utterly self-absorbed ("I'll just have this conversation about how much gunk my doctor found during my colonoscopy with my BFF while I'm shopping at Lowes'").
On top of that, people yakking on the phone
are sucking up the silence. Used to be able to go to a public garden, or park, and, depending on the time of day, have somewhere peaceful to sit. Now? Not so much. There's always SOMEONE, yakking away, sucking up all the peace. Utterly absorbed in their "OMG! OMG, really? No, I was too busy to watch last night, I was on Facebook!," conversation.
I think what's happened is that we have a cross-over; older people spent most of their lives having completely "private" phone conversations, at HOME, and even at work, in their offices and cubbies, whatever. Then cellphones happened, and now they still treat phone conversations as private, even when they are having them in public. It's like an expectation that The Cone Of Silence descends about them as soon as they dial. But all of us here have likely heard entire phone conversations, in gruesome detail, in which we had not the slightest interest. Younger people, on the other hand, have grown up with the same expectation of privacy that a gerbil in a cage with 50 other gerbils has, down at the petshop: none. Both conditions are contributing to the levels of inconsiderate behavior and noise.
That's my $.02 on it. FWIW. I know I'm not alone in this--
everyone seems to react badly to Lone Phone-men sucking up the air, (unless they are the ones on the phone, of course), so whatever causes it, whatever it means, it's part of the Zeitgeist--young, old or in-between.
Hitch