I saw a man today, standing on the sidewalk near the top of the steps I was about to descend. He was on the phone, a not altogether unexpected activity these days – except that his conversation was on speaker for everyone nearby to hear. And I found this a bit strange…and all too familiar. We’ve long become accustomed to the person on their phone in public. There was a day when the joke of hearing someone talking in the bathroom and thinking they were talking to you actually had some humor in it. But now, more often than not, we know they’re on their phone (as odd as that is when sitting on the toilet). And even worse now, with the ubiquity of Bluetooth earbuds that are barely visible, you may see a person strolling down the street seemingly talking to themselves when in fact they’re in conversation with someone potentially continents away.
At least today though we get to wear masks, so we don’t look all that weird from a distance (as a side note, I only put this in here to say I kind of like the mask, just for the luxury of being able to mumble to myself under my breath without anyone seeing my lips move and thinking me entirely crazy).
But by using his speaker, this man was doing something I’m seeing far too much of lately. He’s making everyone around him a part of his conversation. And not a quiet conversation between friends, but one punctuated by the tinny sound of a small speaker piercing the air.
I used to think it the realm of the elderly. I first saw it being done by a few who didn’t seem to know what to do with a cell phone. They would sometimes even hold it up to their ear with the speaker on. But now I’m seeing it more frequently among younger people too. And I’m annoyed. I want to walk by them and just start talking loudly and randomly (and maybe someday I’ll make it a regular habit, when I’m old enough it’ll be expected of me). I don’t necessarily want to call the practice of public speakerphoning “rude,” because I think it something more than that. In all honesty, it’s beyond rude and more like one of the most supremely self-centered and inconsiderate practices modern society has given us.
And yet it continues to happen more and more. I even have someone in my office ( a younger man) who answers his phone on speaker most of he time. And all I want is my peace and quiet. I want to go back to the time when I could be out of my home and no one would be glued to a phone at all. When people actually paid attention to their worlds. When things around us all somehow mattered, if only just a bit more than now.
But the speaker phone is like a piercing disturbance that reminds me – no, it slaps me in the face – that my peace is worth nothing to others. And while maybe someday people will wake up to it, I only see it getting worse. I’m not usually so pessimistic, but the trajectory of things lately hasn’t been all too favorable. But, who knows? There’s so much to be said for a little peace, quiet, and reflection, that it might just catch on with a generation who could become disenchanted with it all down the road.
And if that happens, I’ll know there’s hope for this world after all.