007 - I Shouldn't Hear Your Phone

The speakerphone in public is the main focus of this conversation. The speaker expresses frustration with people who have their phone's sound on in public, including ringtones and notification sounds. They believe it is disrespectful to others and interrupts the tranquility of public spaces. The speaker also mentions a specific person who has a loud and obnoxious text message sound. The other person in the conversation acknowledges that it can be seen as bad manners, but suggests that it could also be a way for people to connect and share nostalgia. The speaker disagrees and believes that it is unnecessary and annoying. They also bring up the issue of speakerphone conversations in public places. The speaker's main argument is that people should be more considerate and keep their phones on silent or use headphones in public. All right, John, we're back. We're back. We're back. Episode insert. Insert number of episode here. This is probably 28, 29. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I don't know. We haven't decided what we're going to do. We're doing like seasons, like season one, season two, or just number one through 756. I don't know. Podcasts do seasons. It's like a fine line. Oh, there's season three. Oh, yeah. You really got into that one. Yeah. It's a special seasoning. Yeah. Well, everything. For those who aren't watching at home, I did the I did the chef's kiss. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I thought that would be weird. That would have been weird. Yeah. Yeah. There's nothing. Nothing that we do is weird, John. Totally. Totally not weird. They know why they're here. But you know what? Do you know why I'm here? You know what I'm pissed about today, John? Go on. Go on. I am pissed about phones in general. I got a few things. I got a few problems here. The biggest thing that I want to that I want to say is that if I ever hear your phone, not your phone, like you general person in public, if I ever hear your phone, you're doing something wrong. If I hear your phone beep, if I hear you talking out loud on your phone, if I hear the voice of the other person talking to you on your phone, if I hear a ring or a ding or a God forbid, a corny sound when somebody texts you because you set up a custom sound every time your husband texts you or whatever. Oh, yeah. Oh, you are. You are failing at life. John, you're failing in life. Again, you offer a lot of judgment in these opinions. And I think that's, again, one of the great things about our conversations. Now, the way that you put your angst or your anger, I guess, around just general sounds related to telephones, are you feeling aggressive, I guess, when you hear voices and ringtones? Yes. But I immediately regret the way I started this thing, because as soon as I said, you're failing at life, I thought of one of our listeners. There are only three listeners I know of this podcast, and two of them are me and you. So the other listener is the person, well, that person's significant other is the person I was thinking of when I made a silly sound with their text message thing. And I didn't say their specific sound, but it's a very specific sound bite from a movie. They're going to know immediately who I'm talking about. Yeah. And we're talking to you. Yeah, we're talking to you. Well, I'm talking to your wife. Oh, yeah. She's not listening to this, but he's listening to this. Right. And I've known her for a long time. I love her. Yeah. She's great. And I don't think she's failing at life. She's doing some wonderful things. Yeah. But I do think she's failing at managing her phone sounds. She, this individual, when we were in social settings, I don't know. Maybe she doesn't know how to put her phone on silent. She's very, she's an intelligent woman. I'm sure she knows how. But every time she gets a text message from her husband, the phone makes a very loud, obnoxious, it's not even just like a ping. You know, it's a soundbite. I'm not going to say the soundbite. It's from a movie. It's like a kids' movie or whatever. Anyway, but it does this thing. And so sometimes, you know, if he's maybe sending a few messages over and over, it's this thing and this thing and this thing. It just goes and goes and goes. And everybody in the room will sort of turn and look at her like, okay, like, we get it. You know, like, do you really need it to, do you really need to go? Anyway, I'm going to stop focusing on her. But just generally, why, John, answer this question for me. I'm very worked up. If you can. Right. Why, why is that? Why do people have their phone make noises in public? My phone's never made a noise. No, that's not true. Whenever the emergency alert system goes off and everyone's phone in America makes a noise, my phone makes a noise. Does that piss you off? Does that piss you off? No, no, that's fine. Because we're all doing it. That's fine. I get it. You have children. You have yourself. You're a lost kid. No, that's fine. You know, but, ah, tornado, who cares? Yeah. But why, other than that, why are we, why are our phones making noise? But isn't that the purpose of the phone? I mean, you have to. No, it's meant to help old phones. Back when I was a kid, my phone would ring on the wall because you're in the other room and you got to walk in there and you pick it up. Hello? You know. Get Gertrude on extension four or whatever. But, ah, that's terrible. Anyway. Go ahead. Let me just say, like, you know, back in that time when the phones were attached to the walls and you had the really long extension cord and you could choose between the pulse setting and the tone setting and the dial kind of tones. You know, it was, the phone didn't have the vibration because it wasn't, you know, it wasn't attached to you. But the phone itself was joyful. It was joyful hearing the phone ring. It's not joyful anymore. Nobody wants to hear the phone ring. I am angry. When anyone calls me, I'm angry. And you threatened to call me. Yeah. I didn't. I didn't. But you did threaten to just call me, which is completely uncalled for. Yeah. You text people. But we're friends. You can call me. I'll still be your friend. Right. But when the phone rings and you realize, when my phone buzzes in my pocket and I realize, like, it's buzzing longer than the text message buzz, I'm like, oh, what idiot is calling me on the phone? Because generally it's somebody I don't know. Yeah. Spam or trying to get me to vote for something or sell me something or whatever. But again, I'm getting sidetracked. The point is, our phones, they all buzz. They all do the same thing. They buzz. They alert you. Let me just clarify here. So you're not against telephoning. You're against just noise, pollution. I am, but that's not what this rant is about. This rant is not about the aspect, the prospect of someone phoning you. It's about the sound, the interruption that it makes to your tranquil existence. If someone else, let's, we're in an airport, doesn't matter. Okay, you're in an airport, you're in a public space, a library, whatever. And if someone else wants to make or take a phone call, see the text message, completely their business. But I shouldn't know about it. Right? Like, your phone shouldn't make a noise. You don't have, you can hear your phone, like, keep it in my purse. Well, quit keeping it in your purse. Tuck it in your bra or something. Like, figure out a way so that your phone doesn't have to make an audible noise. Because it's disrespectful. I mean, you're interrupting the rest of the world because you feel like you need to talk to whoever you don't need to talk to. It's not their fault. It's not their fault. It's their fault. They control whether their phone makes a noise or not. I don't control when someone calls me. But I control whether or not my phone makes a noise. And in a weird occasion that somehow my phone gets taken off silent and it made a noise. I mean, I would be mortified if my phone made noise in public. Yeah. So I think it's time in the program to give it John's verdict. John's verdict. John's verdict. Give it to me. Oh, yeah. Here comes the lesson. Here comes the pain. Here comes the pain. Yeah. You know, I think you would have had me if you would have talked about manner. Because, you know, I'm really big on manners. Sure. You know, in our last couple of, you know, I talked a lot about manners. And I think that there's something to be said about phones going off where it is a manner. You know, it can be better manners. You know, if I go out for a drink with you and I'm sort of telling my life story or whatever, and your phone goes off, even vibration or ring, and you pick it up or you look at it, you know, it kind of takes away from the engagement that we have, you know, the personal sort of connection that we have. Agree. But agree. Yeah. But I think that that's maybe one argument. Someone's decision to turn on the sound of their phone or to engage in public communication, I don't think you can take it personally. I mean, because maybe they have a new – maybe they're tapping into nostalgia. You know, 24. I mentioned it earlier. Like, it's a really popular series from the early noughts featuring Keith or Sutherland. I'm aware this was a show. I've never seen it, but I'm aware that it exists. It was really hot. By having the ringtone on your phone, you know, might offer a little bit of nostalgia to those within earshot. So it could be a delight that they want to share with you. Hey, you remember this TV series? Great. Now I'm going to answer this call and talk to someone about something. That series had a – I can't do the sound, but it had a phone ring that everybody was doing for a while, right? Yeah. Yeah. I was like, oh, yeah, that's great. So, you know, again, if we're sitting down having a drink and you're sort of sharing your life story and you're crying or whatever, and then the 24 theme music goes off inside of my pocket, I pull out my phone, it might bring a smile to your face. There could be. But that's – once and years ago, I mean, that's like someone – that's like showing up at someone's house and they're like, get in here. You got to see this. And they drag you into their room to show you the big mouth billy bass on the wall. Like, isn't this the funniest thing you've ever seen? And it's like, yeah, it was funny in 1999. You know, like, it's not funny anymore. And the 24 ringtone, you know, we heard it. And then do we really need to keep hearing it? I don't know. We got a hard stop in a few minutes. But I got to say, let me ask you this, John. What about speakerphone in public? I'm not talking about speakerphone at your desk. I'm talking about someone walking through the airport holding their phone out in front of them at, like, nose level and just chattering away and having the other person chatter back to them out loud while they're walking in public. How do you feel about that? As we're fast approaching the time, just for context, are they carrying many items? Nope. Are they perhaps juggling balls? Nope. Do they have a headset? No headset. Because they're holding their phone. Their other hand is not encumbered in any way. Nope. Not holding the bag. Okay. Yeah, they're an asshole. Yeah. Okay, good. All right. Well, at least there's that. Oh, thank goodness. Now I can sleep well tonight. Yeah. That I know that's true. Yeah. Yes. You are validated. Gosh, I love being validated. It's like my third favorite thing after tacos. And I can't tell you the second thing, but it's up there. Yeah. It's good. We're trying to keep up. I'm trying to keep the explicit rating off of the podcast. No, this is good. I think innuendos are a safe space to operate within. So, yeah, it's been good. It has been great, John. I appreciate it. It's always a pleasure. I cannot wait to complain about something else. Well, that's what we're here for. Unpopular position. This is our whole brand. You've ruined our whole brand. All right. Try it again. All right. We're going to pretend like. I'm not going to cut that out because I feel like people need to know we're human as well. I think there are a lot of people that look up to us and think those two are gods. Yeah. And probably are better than all of mankind. But I want people to know that, you know, I put my legs on or my pants on seven legs at a time. Like everything else, you know. Yeah. So, go ahead. So, that's why we're here. That's why we're here, Scott, to share. On what show? What's the name of our show? Our Unpopular Opinions. Oh, perfect. All right, John, until next time. Take care. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.