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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 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 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.
Ha, ha! Nobody ever says Italy.
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.
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'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.
-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?