I drive a cab. The other day this girl in her 20s who was like a freaking social media character; she had that no-heat curl thing in her hair and a Stanley cup and everything. She was nice and all, but she played videos on her phone with the volume up the whole hour drive and while I wasn't really annoyed because it wasn't super loud I still would never do that.
But I thought, hey, maybe her ear buds are in her suitcase or whatever, nbd.
She gets out and I realize she's had whole entire headphones in her hand the whole time.
Again, it wasn't the worst, she didn't have the volume on high. But it was weird.
(And just for context, I'm a woman and while people have described me as many things, "sketchy" and "threatening" have never been one of them, so I don't think it was a safety thing.)
I just got back from a trip to Italy and Croatia and I found these places to have a shitload of people who will just scroll their phones at full blast. Drives me insane.
Edit: I’m from Canada btw. Here if someone is scrolling loud I at least feel comfortable telling them to shut up, but I definitely come across it faaaar less at home.
People like that only respond to authority figures. They're un-shameable because if they had any shame to begin with, they wouldn't be such asshats in public.
I don’t think it is considered polite by the majority of the people in most European countries either, still some people do it which drives me crazy. I have personal experience mostly in Italy and Finland, and it has become more common in the recent years.
Yeah as an American here in London, I don’t tolerate it on long train rides. I say in a loud voice that someone forgot to put their headphones on, and when they ignore that I say that I’ll give one more chance before I send my husband back there (and by this point they have heard my accent), and 100% of the time it’s silence after that.
There’s always a Southern European talking on speaker in the Quiet Carriage of European trains, too. 🤡
In France they even get offended if you ask them to turn the volume off in public transports it’s becoming really tiring to explain I can’t even enjoy my own music in my ear pièce from how much they blast their TikTok
Someone needs to pull out a 90s stereo and drown out their antisocial crap for a minute, give them a taste of their own medicine, on tape cassette so they appreciate the crummy sound quality as well.
I seriously don't get it. Even if you don't have any issue with spamming your local area with unwanted audio, your headphones definitely sound better than the phone speaker. Why wouldn't you just use them if you've got them? It's main character syndrome behavior.
Also, I'm kind of fascinated by this -- are you like an actual cab driver or Uber/Lyft? I realize I've spent a ton of time in NYC back in the day and have never seen an actual yellow cab driven by a woman. I've definitely had many woman Uber/Lyft drivers though -- like probably close to 25% (I don't take many Uber/Lyfts so this number is highly anecdotal).
It had never really occurred to me that the classic taxi driver business was (nearly?) an exclusively male occupation, but it kind of obviously was. I also understand why -- without a feedback/rating system, you're literally just picking anyone off up the street.
Actual taxi driver. I mostly take people to and from a small but popular vacation town to the slightly larger town's airport an hour away; my customers are both locals and tourists. I work for a local guy who has been running his own taxi business for years and needed some help. Everything is by reservation, so it feels a lot safer than the "rando off the street" style of cab work. (Not that that work isn't important; I just don't do it.)
I don't just think it's their phones either. I swear the number of times I'm staying at a hotel or an apartment somewhere, it's 3am and I'm fast asleep. But some boomer or genZ are having a really loud conversation outside the window, in a residential street, complete with laughter and expressive noises. At 3 fucking am.
Fuck me it's 3am in the morning. Quiten down with the vocal volume!
Generally older people are hard of hearing and struggle to hear their phones.
But they grew up happily talking to people, ringing each other up on landlines for a chat before mobiles became a thing and now use mobiles the same way. And as you get older and getting out and about gets harder, that contact becomes a lifeline in fending off loneliness - something that is a major issue for elderly people.
"Loud tap tap tappy noise" had me thinking of the computer speaker warning for incoming calls before I finished your sentence. And now I want to find that to make my ring tone.
Wish I could upvote this a thousand times. Some people just do not understand that sound can intrude on others nearly as much as stepping into their bubble.
The glare I give in waiting rooms at the sound of these infernal tippy taps is LARGE (currently preggo so I’m at the doc a lot in a shared waiting room)
You hate it because people shouldn't make unnecessary noises. A random cough, sigh, chair squeak, etc? Fine, that is normal. Repetitive electronic sounds to let you know you successfully typed something?? Open your fucking eyes and look at your screen to see the letters you put there, that's the only feedback you need! I sure as hell don't need to hear it five seats away.
I was in the ER waiting room after splitting my knee open in a mountain biking accident.. some old lady was sitting near me playing a game that was playing the mario coin noise over and over and over at full volume, I finally said in a loud voice (like loud so an old person can hear me) "Maam excuse me could you please turn the sound down?" and she didn't even look up. So many other people looked at me with that "thank you for saying what we've all been thinking" look. Didn't help, but at least I tried.
It's kind of tempting to start carrying a clicky pen solely for the purpose of sitting next to these boors and just clicking it in their ear nonstop. Will it solve anything? No. Is it petty? You betcha!
My favorite is when they “fire off” a text or email and go to triumphantly send it like BAM!👇 (as if the person on the other end caught any of this attitude) and completely fail. Even better is when they like BAM! BAM! BAM! thier finger into the phone like violence will fix it.
It’s so funny because I always make fun of my 32 year old husband for being an old man and be sure enough always has his phone loud af, the tappity tap noise on and playing videos at full volume 😩😂
I hate the tapping text sounds I always turn that off. But I have had basically the same ringtone for the last twenty years because it’s on every phone and I think it’s hilarious. It’s the reggae version of “take the a train”. I was also fond of the whistling wizard ringtone back in the day.
That and to accompany the godawful ringtone, they have some obnoxious vibrate pattern that scares the shit out of you when the whole table starts rumbling.
And then on top of that they panic when it rings and say HELLO? HELLO??? all angrily because they haven't gotten past the weirdness of being called when they're outside of the home and "I can never hit these buttons I hit something and something else pops up I don't know about this damn phone"
That drives me crazy. I worked in tech support in the late 90s and the CEO of the company would constantly double or triple open things because he wouldn't pay attention to what he was clicking on or how many times he clicked. I see it with my 83 year old mom now because she gets impatient with her phone and keeps tapping the screen when it doesn't do exactly what she wants instantly.
The sad thing is I've learned it's an emotional regulation issue. My mom, also in her '80s, it's so frustrated every time she has to do anything on her phone and complains and keeps hitting it. Then when I sit down and show her how to do it with like the gentle parenting voice, she calms right down and can simply press with normal force once and do what she needs to do.
Where did I learn this shit? I certainly didn't learn from her lol I was raised by a woman I now know was going through perimenopause (I.e. fury) during my formative years.
I guess we're all just reparenting our parents at this point
Literally, in the computer lab for elementary school, while loading things from terminal, we learned exactly how to twiddle our thumbs while we wait. I remember being taught this!
(This was justtttttt before normies had home internet, even dial up.)
I love when older people come into my work(a retail store) and have a video or something playing on their phone that’s in their pocket, and they have no clue.
My mom will look at the damn text and try to read it via preview while her ridiculously long notification is still playing. And forget it if MULTIPLE notifications come in one after another. If you dont turn that shit off!
When she upgraded phones a few months ago, I told her if she selects that notification sound again, I would throw her phone out the window lol.
I'm still trying to get her to stop putting every conversation on speakerphone. The woman has hearing aids she can hear just fine. It's a habit.
She should look into hearing aids that stream audio directly to them. Mine does that and lets me take calls and watch videos/listen to music directly through them
Honestly, it's like they forgot what makes the noise and have to rummage around and find it by process of elimination. And THEN they sit there squinting at who's calling before deciding whether to answer or hang up because they don't know you can silence the ringer as it's ringing.
The worst is at church. A phone will ring 17 times before the owner a) realizes it’s theirs that is ringing, and b) fumbles around and gets it turned off. And then they have the gall to call aaaaaanybody else “disrespectful.”
And inside the restaurant, once they’re able to retrieve said phone, rather than hanging up, they’ll pick up and tell the other person on the other line that they’ll call back because they’re at a restaurant… sometimes it’s on speaker or video call
Nah we’ll have some sort of neural link so it just flashes in front of our retinas and our kids will complain when we make the “reading our eyeballs” face
It's insane how many notifications people allow to go off on their phone. The only thing I have that makes noise is text messages. Everything else is silent and goes to the notification center. But basically any app I'm turning the notifications off.
Sometimes I'll see someone scroll through their notifications and there's dozens of different app notifications. Absolutely insane that people will put up with that.
And EVERYTHING gets a audible, vibrating notification! Your friend Suzy liked a photo on Facebook! 20% off sinks & vanities at Lowe’s! Your friend Mike tracked a new workout! 47 NEW NOTIFICATIONS every time the phone screen lights up. I just want to take a hammer to their phones
My mom (75y/o) has a landline at her house... and it rings non-stop. And its always always always someone selling insurance or asking for donations or whatever scam.
And she answers the phone every time like theres a 50/50 chance her best friend is calling to invite her over for choclate cake.
She'll cut off in person conversations, pause a movie, etc to pick up the landline on the 2nd ring.
It drives me crazy.
I ask her "when is the last time someone you personally know called you on the landline?" (This is a lady who has had a mobile phone since they came in a bag and you had to put a magnetic attena on the roof of your car)
Now when I go over there for visits, first thing, I go into the bedroom and take a phone off the hook to buy us all some peace and she's none the wiser.
My mother in law has a siren as her ringtone. Wiener it goes off in public it’s like a national alert just went off because umbrella corp left the doors unlocked.
Boomers do it because they are naïve about that it is disturbing and are a bit slow and sensory challenges themselves; gen-z does it because they dgaf.
Pretty much everyone except gen X and late millenials use speaker phone, I don't understand it at all. The phone is designed to be spoken into and listened to at the same time, you wouldn't have to do this weird mouth/ear alternating dance if you just held it to your face.
My mom’s phone will ring on full blast when we’re in a restaurant or crowded spot. Then she’ll stare at it and decide she doesn’t want to answer. I’m like, SILENCE it at least! And she shrugs her shoulders like, yeah sure. It’s so obnoxious.
No mother, mine's been on silent for ten years. Plus it's literally coming from your purse and how do you not know the sound of your own phone ringing by now.
My mom not only has the ringer on but multiple alarms daily to remind her to do things. Set just as loud and she will leave the phone around the house and takes forever to get to the phone and turn the alarm off. I silence at least half of them.
Would it work to get her one of those transparent phone pouches that you type through and hangs from your neck with a comfortable enough cord? Or would she just keep leaving that around too...
I live with my boomer parents and it drives me insane. Also my mom screens her calls but refuses to silence it if its a trash call. Just rings and rings
It's true, just went to my nieces wedding and my father in law had sweet child o mine come blaring out of his phone right in the middle of the ceremony.
Growing up in the 80s and 90s the sound of the landline telephone gave me so much anxiety. To this day I still hate the sound of a phone ringing or vibrating.
All millennials are wannabe x-ers. We looked up to them growing up. Still do. So if we do something, there’s a good chance they were doing it first. So no need to mention what they do. They’re doing the same things we are; they’re just the overlooked middle child.
Not just ringers. Medication alerts. Reminders to do the most mundane things. And the phone is never near them to quickly silence it. They always have to fucking find it. Digging through a purse or trying to remember where they put it down.
“Well unlike you I don’t have my phone permanently attached to me!” they always quip.
“Um, the 500 AI pictures of my kids from Grok I’ve asked you NOT to make anymore that you send me all goddamn day says otherwise.”
I was teaching a boomer student the other day and this happened twice during our lesson. Complete with the unnecessarily loud "hello?" like 5 times before they could hear each other
tbf, it's fucking impossible to find a reasonable volume on the ringer and the text alert. on androids and iphones for decades, the two volumes have been linked together. like..wtf? trying to get the volumes right feels like you need a degree in computer science. no wonder my geriatric mother can't figure it out.
My dad gets mad when people text him too much or he is included in group texts because he doesnt understand how to silence his phone or put it on do not disturb. I'm talking like legit angry, raised scolding voice and all.
The man was a successful surgeon for 40+ years, yet this technology escapes him.
I'm a millennial who does this but I use my phone to communicate at work on noisy industrial construction job sites and missing an important call at work can be bad.
I basically never get calls otherwise, so it doesn't bother me
I work in a retirement community doing maintenance, and I have to carry a work phone. I'm on-call overnight, so I keep my ringtone on, and it's set fairly loud. The problem is that it's the default ringtone and 75% of the residents have the same default iphone ringtone.
My mom is in her 60s, I'm going into my 40s in a couple of years, and my brother is in his early 30s. They came over to visit and my mom's ringer went off and both my brother and I jumped and looked at her like she just kicked a dog in front of us and called it ugly. 😂
All I could say was, "GOT DAMN" and my brother was like, "Damn what the hell? Does it need to be that loud holy shit. Calm down, damn." and she just looks at us both with a "teehee...whaaaaaat?" Look on her face like she didn't just blast us to middle earth.
Meanwhile, I'm sitting on silent and fully capable of answering a phone call when someone calls. Lol.
My on the cusp between Gen-X and millennial friend has his set like this and has a huge group text with some people he streams with. Hanging out with him sucks butt. Just constant dinging and weird harmonica sounds.
Can confirm. I was just with my boomer dad and his phone rang full blast every 5 minutes with robocallers. He also texts using his pointer finger and watches TikTok videos on full volume.
Really? Cuz I can't get a hold of any of my old people when I need to. In fact, I've considered switching my emergency contacts to people who aren't older than me cuz they never pick up their fucking phone...
And they're more attached to it than I ever have been. Sure I doom scroll before bed time like any normal person but it's weird to see older folks using them more than I do.
What annoys me more is when they get a call ive seen them look at it decide not to answer but let it keep ringing. Hit that silence button at least. I have my ringer on because I have constant calls coming in for my kid but if I don't want to answer I silence that call asap
I have a friend/coworker that is a Xennial who surprisingly keeps his phone on an 11, with the haptic ring taps on a 12/10 when he types.. and it's honestly beyond infuriating. He's a good dude and generally has his pulse on common sense ideals , except with his phone 😭😤
They do this shit at my work all the time, then walk away from their desk and leave their phone, so everyone has to listen to their Yakety Sax ringtone on max volume.
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u/stuckanon01 Aug 14 '26
One of the most irritating things about hanging with boomers is that they always have their phone ringer on and set to 11/10