I'm Jeron (rhymes with Erin). A trans girl, apparently. I dabble in basically everything. World Record Holder. Girl-King of cats. Fledgling Goddess of Hunger


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bcj
@bcj

what happened with the creation of 'smart' phones such that a bunch of people decided the way you talk on a phone is not holding the phone to your head like a phone but instead is holding the phone flat in front of you with the mic pointed vaguely toward your mouth.

It's clearly not a more efficient way of talking on the phone since people doing it sure need to talk loudly and yet I see people doing it all the time


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in reply to @bcj's post:

i think people see that the microphone is at the base of the phone and think "i will talk directly into the mic to make myself clearer" without realizing that the mic is optimized for use while held up to your head like a phone, whereas on older phones the mic was generally visually pointed at your mouth when held optimally. people don't know enough about audio engineering to know that the way the microphone looks is not very relevant to its pickup pattern

I'm sure it doesn't help that modern phones are quite uncomfortable to hold to your head. I remember a review for an early smartphone--Trio maybe?--that described it as "like talking on a waffle".

I had a friend who was on speaker constantly, even in the flip phone era, and his answer for that maneuver was always "I can't hear the phone when it's at my ear". Turns out he needed hearing aids! So maybe part of it is a poor understanding of microphone design and part of it is a subtle adaptation to not hearing well (a lot of people need hearing aids).

I keep wondering the same thing, but I realized it might be wireless earbuds. So people don’t have to have their phone to their ear to hear anymore, but still need the mic to be heard.