I see this on TV and in real life a lot. Guys (yes, mainly males) hold the phone away from their ear, close to their mouth like a walkie-talkie.
I have a few theories:
[ol]
[li]It’s supposed to look cool, since they’ve seen others doing it, especially cool dudes on TV.[/li][li]“I’m so important, I give the orders, I don’t need to hear the response.” :rolleyes:[/li][li]All that (debunked) stuff about cellphone radiation giving you brain cancer. :rolleyes:[/li][li]“Look how cool I am, I’m using a walkie-talkie.”[/li][/ol]
I do this a lot. As an old guy, I guess I’m thinking the microphone needs to be right next to my mouth, like the old phones. I can hear just fine this way so why not. I never thought it made me look cool.
This is the way I talk on my cell phone. When I answer it, it hit the loudspeaker button so I can hear whoever is calling so I don’t have to put the phone next to my face. The volume is low enough that others can’t hear to person that called me. I don’t know about others but my phone use to get all gunky from the oils on my face and this caused a premature failure of my last phone. The kid at the kiosk suggested using my new phone in this manner and it has worked great.
You may be (probably are) seeing commercials for the push-to-talk phones (Nextel used to pimp this pretty hard) which are indeed more like walkie talkies than like phones (I hope you know what I’m talking about – you press a button and instantly speak to someone else, then they do the same, each time separated by a beep).
IME, these phones are often operated in “speaker” mode (i.e., you/everyone can hear what the other party is saying).
Also IME and from the ads, they are most popular among blue-collar workers (construction, firemen) who have to communicate regularly with a discrete set of co-workers who may be locationally remote/mobile.
Since this functionality really is kind of like a walkie talkie, it’s not shocking that they’re used similarly.
It must be an “urban male” thing. When I go to the “hood” areas of Chicago, I always see the young African American males do this.
They hold the phone to their ear, then when they talk they switch to “microphone mode,” then switch back.
I’ve never seen anyone else do this. At first I thought it was just the fact they couldn’t hear on the other end, but then I realized it was only when I went into the "hood’ so to speak that I’ve seen this.
So it seems to be a “fashion statement” so to speak.
I think you may be right about it being an urban male thing. What reminded me of this was seeing an undercover cop using the cell phone this way on an episode of “Bait Car”.
It seems to be a bit like the penchant for holding a gun sideways, “gangsta” style.
I do it because I have a tendency to talk loudly on cell phones since I don’t hear my own voice in the earpiece like on a regular phone. I think this is actually the reason that so many people are inordinately loud on cell phones in public. I’m extra-conscientious about not being “that guy,” so I hold the phone away from my ear when I talk.
I’m not sure what you are talking about, really. Could someone link me a picture of this odd method of holding? I tend to ignore people talking on cell phones so I haven’t noticed.
I occasionally do the walkie talkie thing because I find holding the phone against my ear uncomfortable. I’ll do it for long conversations, though, not quick calls.
Saw it today on an episode of Super Sweet Sixteen from NYC. FWIW, from personal experience it seems to be far more common practice in the US than here. The people I saw doing it most in NYC were 30s/40’s white men.
I do it on occasion, but not out in public. I usually use a Bluetooth headset. Once in awhile the headset refuses to connect to the phone. And I HATE holding the thing against my head; gives me headaches. So, it’s speaker on & talk into it like Capt Kirk.
Which looks dorky as hell, which is why I don’t do it in public, in addition to the not-annoying-other-people thing which I (& the rest of the SDMB but nobody else on Earth) believes in.
I have never owned a phone with speaker phone capabilities. Is that more the I’Pod style thing? I might start using my phone like that as with the ear speaker at my ear, the microphone is a long way from my moth and people don’t hear me very well.
I have a Pantech C-300 and have an older Samsung 427m.
