Remember phone boxes? Those glass structures - originally red with glass panels and later grey with swing doors If you wanted to ring someone up when you were out and about, you went into one of these and had a quiet conversation. It was private. Just you and the other person.
Fast forward to 2019 and conversations are conducted in public - loudly. And to make it even worse, some people put their mobile on speaker so you can hear both sides of the conversation.
I was walking down the street one day when i heard someone behind me say, 'Hi Gorgeous,' so I turned around to reply only to find it was someone on their mobile. Now I reckon if someone is going to carry on a loud conversation in public it should be OK for the rest of us to join in.
It's tricky if you are sitting with a group of friends having coffee and someone takes a call and starts chatting away to whoever. It really makes it hard for the rest of us to continue our chat. Should the other person get up and walk away to carry on their talk? Last time it happened (and it wasn't the first or second or third time) I decided to continue our group conversation quite loudly over the top of the phone convo.
I find another problem is that when you ring someone on their mobile you have no idea where they are. The should feel free not to answer if inconvenient. (I remember having a discussion with my mum's solicitor while standing next to the meat department at the supermarket.) I now tend to ask if it's convenient to talk because it's not like the old days. Back then, when you rang a fixed phone it really was fixed. Not mobile or cordless. In my family home there was a special seat with a shelf next to it for the phone and that's where you sat to talk. If someone rang they knew that was where you were.
Enough. Times change...
Bonus joke
An old Greek /Italian/New Australian was showing a friend around his new mansion. He assured the friend that he had a statue and pointed to it. The friend said, 'But that's a phone'. 'Yes,' said the old guy. 'You pick it up and say, Statue?'
Sometimes, though, you hear something that makes you laugh! We came out of a shop, and a man nearby was making a call. The person at the end must have answered, because our man then loudly asked him, 'How ya goin', ya dimwit!'They were obviously good friends!
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