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Posted by austinallegro 12 hours ago

Why do some people play their phones out loud on buses and trains?(www.rte.ie)
35 points | 24 comments
kstrauser 11 hours ago|
There are a million reasons why shaming someone can be bad. Ultimately, who am I to judge how people dress or decorate their bodies, so long as it doesn't harm me?

But when some asshole on the bus is yammering his sex life at high volumes, I think we've swung too far in the other direction. There's a time and place for public shaming, and being on a commute-time bus meets those requirements.

RegnisGnaw 10 hours ago|
What is harm? If people do dangerous activities and expect our socialized medicine to pay for it when they get injured, does that harm me? Is increasing my taxes a harm?
bobs_salsa 9 hours ago|||
You alright there?
anakaine 8 hours ago|||
All medical treatment should go before a judge and jury, with prosecution and defence making cases for payment and non-payment of medical bills under socialised healthcare.

Obvious /s

goodells 11 hours ago||
It's interesting how different standards for behavior on public transit are over there compared to the US. The €100 fine for playing music out loud introduced by Irish Rail sounds heavenly. Here in Dallas, half the trains I get on have someone openly smoking (cigarettes, weed, meth) on them and the rare transit security officers supposed to be doing something about it are the ones playing loud videos on their phones!
jameslk 8 hours ago||
Tragedy of the commons which is a symptom of lack of common culture. That is, since not everyone has been raised under the same culture and norms, there will be misunderstandings about what is acceptable. More regulation and fines[0] to solve what is mostly an educational problem seems unfortunate

0. From TFA: In the UK, the Liberal Democrats proposed legislation that would make playing content out loud a fineable offence of up to £1,000.

vacuity 7 hours ago|
Tragedy of the commons is separate, and I think a more serious issue. If the only problem is clashing cultures, a firm warning would suffice. However, people who have more or less the same culture may still perpetrate the tragedy of the commons, and I think culture is not much of a factor. Tragedies of the commons occur when people do not see or care how their individual actions affect the collective.
musicale 1 hour ago||
> Earlier this year, Irish Rail introduced new etiquette guidelines and a €100 fine for playing music or videos out loud on trains

I am moving to Ireland immediately.

Wait, are they also banning loud FaceTime calls? Please say yes.

precommunicator 10 hours ago||
I've had to answer a urgent phone call on a bus once (on headphones) and I felt bad about that.

I don't understand how can you even think this is ever acceptable.

However, same as the 54% mentioned in the article I won't ask them, but for a different reason: noise canceling headphones means unless someone is playing a concert, it won't bother me.

RandomBacon 7 hours ago|
Phone microphones are generally pretty good. You don't need to shout or even talk loudly into them. Usually talking quieter than a normal conversation will be easily picked up by the phone's microphone.

As long as you talk at an appropriate level, there is no need to feel bad.

jleyank 11 hours ago||
Basic lack of consideration, or, no penalty being an asshole.
rolph 11 hours ago||
its a form of exhibitionism, its a disturbance, but probably not loud enough to be criminal. it can be very distracting to the bus driver especially if there are a lot of sounds like traffic, im sure thats criminal in most municipalities.
lostlogin 11 hours ago||
There is often a touch of intimidation with it too, daring you to challenge them.
DrPimienta 10 hours ago|||
It's entirely about this
ashanoko 10 hours ago|||
This. Its a dominance move. Loosers disturbing working citizens to signal status in the streetcred hierarchy.
southwindcg 9 hours ago||
Maybe they're p-zombies.
renewiltord 10 hours ago||
I wonder what an actual survey would yield. This article is “What do people imagine is the reason why some people play their phones out loud on buses and trains?”

And I suppose that’s neat for hypothesis generation but I think a few minutes thought could come up with all of these. Perhaps next time I will try to politely ask. Wish me luck. Hope I don’t get stabbed.

Here’s my extra hypothesis: some people actually don’t know what’s going on - they stop at the top of the escalator and look around; they stand in the middle of the aisle with their shopping cart blocking it; and they don’t have a clue that the TV volume is high

ericmcer 9 hours ago|
Once again we have to legislate basic courtesy due to a tiny minority of the population being unable to function around others.

It sucks that 90% of our rules are made to control < 3% of the population.

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