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Comment by xpl | Hacker News Reader

> Can you imagine how goofy you'd look sitting at a coffee shop and just sort of staring into the middle distance and talking, as you take a Zoom call?

Honestly, people used to say the same thing about Bluetooth hands-free devices years ago, and now no one even bats an eye when someone talks using AirPods.

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It still catches me off guard sometimes. Just a personal opinion, but it's a bit offputting because it's distracting to hear only one half of the conversation. My brain is dragged unwillingly into filling in the other half. Also we tend to talk kinda obnoxiously loud on the phone. But I guess that applies equally well to all public phone conversations.

why are you trying to listen in on other people's conversations? mind your business.

Personally, I'd love to mind my business, but some people are so obnoxiously loud I don't have a choice.

To clarify, I'm able to ignore in person conversations. Phone conversations are more distracting especially when they're loud. I'm unwillingly drawn into conversations I'd rather ignore.

When someone is talking loudly right next to you, they are MAKING it my business.

"...and then he had the nerve to tell me to keep my voice down!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!?! HAHAHAHAHA"

Some people act like the rest of us are NPCs.

ca. 25 years ago, I remember seeing the first comic comparing people with hands-free with the "village idiot" and making the point that we couldn't tell regular people apart from the village idiot any longer, because it'd implicitly already become normal.

In other words: This was normalized a generation ago.

And now I feel very old.

It still looks goofy and takes me a moment to register they're talking to someone on a phone when they breeze by.

> no one even bats an eye

We absolutely do. And there are certain etiquettes that have evolved around airpods/ handsfree phone calls, that can make you weird or even rude to violate.

I mean, I certainly do. People with airpids look incredibly goofy.

Yeah but those people still look stupid and are annoying (and selfish insecure) “look at me I’m in a coffee shop doing bidness”

Almost as annoying as people in airports/planes now watching their phones with no headphones. All out giving no ficks to people around them

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