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Why Mobile Phones Are Annoying
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."
I beleive people tend to talk louder while on a cellphone. They repeat themselves over and over. "Can you hear me? I said..." People will talk on a cellphone without regard to their "real life" companion... sometimes I feel as if I'm not really there when someone gets involved in a conversation. And its annoying because, when I want to listen in, I only hear half of the conversation!! :-)
Just my US$0.02
I can't stand when someone has a cell phone conversation and speaks too loud. It's as if these people are trying to let everyone else know that they are "cool" and talk so loud that you can pretty much follow thier conversation, even though you are only hearing one side. I think it's funny too the people that pimp through the mall with the high-tech headset attatched. Usually these are the people that appear not to have a dime to thier name, but somehow still have the most expensive phone on the market. 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.
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My "ringer" is set to vibrate - wherever I am, because other people don't need to hear the ringing. When I'm in a bookstore, library or restaurant, if I take or make a call I either walk out to the lobby, or find a place where others aren't. And I wear a headset when I drive, but I still see tons of people breaking my state's cell phone law, despite an alleged "ticket blitz."
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.
I swear. They asked the wrong people if they didn't get results that the ringtones are annoying. People choose the most obnoxious ringtones imaginable and pump them out as loud as those little phones are able.
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.
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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.
What it really comes down to is a matter of how nosey you can be. We all are motivated to some degree by a sense of morbid curiosity -- a simple enough desire to know everything. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. If two people choose to have a conversation within earshot of me, I am not going to be made to feel the slightest bit guilty for listening in {however, I would draw the line at passing on information received without consent. Being privy to a secret doesn't give you the right to broadcast it}. If it's that important, they can always get up and go somewhere else.
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.
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I suspect that one part of why hearing half a conversation is more annoying has to do with the intermittent nature of half a conversation. Whenever someone starts talking near me, particularly if they are using a loud voice, I listen for a moment to see if they are talking to me. If they are in a conversation where I an hear both parts it's easier to ignore as it's easy to tell that they are not addressing me. With the stop/start pattern of half a conversation, I think most people are subconsciously triggered to pay attention to see if someone wants to talk to them, every time the local speaker makes a remark.
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.
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Will people stop focusing on the wrong thing (cell phone) and return focus to the actual source of the problem (asshole)?
A few thoughts on this research.
:) ) will get annoyed quicker. If this is true, it's unfortunate, because it means that even if the majority of mobile phone users can be educated to be considerate, people will still get annoyed even at them, because they've been "pre-annoyed" by the inconsiderate people.
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
Or is that just me?
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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.
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Not only is this (a) rude and (b) probably illegal (it is in the US, but (c) dangerous.
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.
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Vibration is the best way to be sure your phone is ringing... and it has the advantage of not annoying anyone else.
It's bad enough having the ring and the semi-shouted conversations, but the freaking "over" beep just kills me. People have no class at all using them in a restaurant. People wouldn't bring a CB radio...this is different?
I don't know about china, but I have some first hand experience with Eastern Europe. It's a different culture, all right.
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.
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Nothing on earth is more annoying than the Nextel walkie talkie feature. If people used them the way you say it wouldn't be too bad, but morons on the train that have entire conversations on them are more painful than Chinese water torture.
I propose a world wide ban on walkie talkie phones.