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A little less conversation
Why don’t we like people using mobiles on trains? we asked last week, when there are far more irritating habits that we seem to put up with.
‘Isn’t it that we’re all very nosey naturally and only hearing half the conversation drives us mad?’ asks Nick Sanderson, at the Environment Agency.
‘There’s nothing better to pass the time on a boring train journey than eavesdropping on the couple having a controlled row on the table behind. If the argument is on a phone it takes away half of the fun.’
An alternative suggestion: ‘Whenever a phone rings, I’m conditioned to respond,’ says Ian Philipson. ‘Awareness of the ring interrupts anything else I may be doing, my pulse rate rises, I start to be concerned. I’m convinced that these physiological responses are what really annoy.’
He adds that we should do an experiment to prove this, by asking someone who doesn’t have a phone whether they mind phones ringing on trains – which if he’s correct, they won’t mind at all. Problem is, we can’t ring them up to ask them.
Although phones on trains are annoying, I tend to get annoyed at other things on my daily commute including strong perfume, application of makeup (I saw a girl do this for 30 minutes once - she looked 10 years older at the end) and large amounts of bags on knees.
I've even started a blog where I rant about these things.
Posted by :Robert Williams | October 13, 2004 5:04 PM