aren’t people who talk loudly on their mobile phones in public spaces just the most annoying thing?
and it happens more and more it seems. for a while there was hoping, that it would decrease with the years, when people would get more used to technology, ubiquitous availability, novelty and that they would develop some sort of etiquette for using mobile phones in public spaces. but no such thing happened. it seems to keep getting worse. to this day people start to talk louder and get more stupid as soon as someone calls them on their mobile.
it’s like audio spam, another daily unsolicited annoyance.
well, recently i had an idea that might help to tone this down. crowdsourced shaming.
how about a website – to be created – where people can upload photos, movies and even written reports of such public mobile phone spam?
i mean, these people seem to think that whatever they have to say to whoever is on the other end of their phone call is SOOO important that a whole bus/train/cafe/whatever NEEDS to know about it. so why not take their cue, and post it on the internet for the whole world to see and hear… then crowdsource their names. and let’s see if this won’t tone at least some people down.
could work imho. thoughts?
I don’t think this will work, someone has to take the responsibility to show these people [1] in public. Since you’re not allowed to freely post a picture of anyone on the interwebz, you might run into some legal trouble… IANAL, though.
[1] which also annoy the hell outta me, don’t understand me wrong!
i came to this idea exactly because i have tried to talk to people in the past, only to be met with rude attitude, even outright aggression and contempt, and at times even bystanders were taking the side of the people talking on their phones, making me look and feel like an idiot.
as far as privacy laws, i suppose such a project would definitely have to move in a legal grey area. yes, in switzerland it would be against the law to post photos, but what about written transcripts of the conversations? other countries have very different laws and posting photos would be perfectly legal.
at any rate, i could easily argue that these phone spammers invade my privacy, so it is all about taking some form of revenge, about the venting. maybe nothing and nobody would ever change, but at least i would have a place to deposit my frustration.