The Rosie and Roula Show

161: Why Do People Use Speakerphone in Public? It’s Rude and It's Selfish

• Roula Abou Haidar and Rosie Burrows

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In this short episode of The Rosie & Roula Show, we tackle a modern-day annoyance: people blasting their phone conversations on speaker in public.

From buses and trains to shops and streets, “speakerphone culture” is taking over  but is it convenience, entitlement, or just plain rude? Rosie and Roula debate noise pollution, privacy, empathy, and why so many of us have stopped calling it out.

They unpack how this small behavior reflects bigger shifts in modern manners and social awareness, questioning whether we’ve become less considerate and more self-focused as a society.

You’ll hear:

  • Rosie’s unfiltered take: “It’s noise pollution and it shits me off.”
  • Roula’s big WHY: Why do people think it’s OK to disturb everyone around them?
  • A trip down memory lane: Walkmans, boomboxes, and now… speakerphones everywhere.
  • What this trend says about empathy and everyday social behavior.
  • A blunt message to all public speakerphone users.

If you’ve ever rolled your eyes at a stranger’s loud call in public — this one’s for you.

speakerphone in public, speakerphone etiquette, public phone call annoying, rude behavior in public, noise pollution, modern manners, Rosie and Roula podcast, privacy, empathy, phone calls, social behavior, communication, technology, societal norms.

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Roula (00:00)
Okay, okay. Timer is on, six minutes. We're trying to record five episodes under the six minutes, okay?

Rosie (00:06)
Okay.

Welcome back to the Rosie and Roula show. We are doing a bit of an experiment today. We want to see if we can do the next five episodes in under six minutes. Now, the other thing we are doing, not really by choice, is that we have, we can't see each other. Usually we have video on and we can see each other, but my internet is being a poo. So this is like a phone conversation, except I can see myself. My video is showing to me and Roula, can you see your video?

or not.

Roula (00:44)
Yeah, I do. I can.

Rosie (00:46)
You do.

So anyway, yes, me too. Me too. So we're, we're looking at ourselves. It's very vain and very strange. But when we upload to YouTube, we're both going to be there as if by magic. So Roula start the timer.

Roula (00:49)
I see myself. I see myself.

Okay, okay, here we go. The timer is on six minutes and I have a topic.

Rosie (01:17)
Okay.

Okay, let's go.

Roula (01:20)
Yes? All right. So, Rosie, what do you think or how do you feel lately that people speak on their phone, have phone calls, whatever, on speaker? More and more people are using their speaker in public spaces, train, bus, street, shop. So how do you feel about that? And what's what's our opinion?

Rosie (01:38)
Mmm

It's annoying. It's annoying. It's

noise pollution. It's just very annoying. Sometimes I've had my phone on speaker because I can't hear through the earpiece, but I'll have it as quiet as I can and I'll hold it to my ear. ⁓ I find it very disruptive. It shits me off. Should I care less? Probably, but it annoys me. I don't want extra noise around me. Hold the phone to your ear or put earphones in. That's my hot take. What about you?

Roula (02:16)
I'm myself, how come people feel like they are entitled or maybe entitled is a big word. Why do more and more there is this feeling that if you have a phone, it's OK to put it on speaker? You know what I mean? I have this feeling that I'm not able to put it in words. Why? When we have a phone call, we think it's OK.

to put it on speaker that the person next to us get disturbed, hear it, et cetera. That's my big why question.

I think Rosie you disappeared on me.

You're gone!

Hmm, that's not working.

⁓ you're gone, but you're still recording.

Rosie (03:15)
I'm back in yimmy!

Roula (03:16)
yeah

no that's not good we have a lot to edit now hold on hold on hold on you do you know what happened

Rosie (03:24)
No, it just, it said the internet disappeared, which it didn't. So, hmm.

Roula (03:24)
Okay.

okay. Shall I repeat

where I started?

After you asked me, my question, Rosie, the big why is that how come the human persons, people feel it's OK to go on speaker in public places? So where is our privacy? Why we feel it's OK that we bother people with the speaker all our life?

Rosie (03:34)
Yeah, OK.

Roula (04:01)
We, know, from the Walkman to the headset, et cetera, when we're listening to music outside in public, we have it in our ears. So why do we think having a phone call? yes, yes. Even music is not anymore in the ear. It's also on speaker. Look, yeah, but there were places, ⁓ not, all the time. Not everybody had music box.

Rosie (04:09)
Okay, that's not true. Think about the boombox. Boombox.

Yeah. Well,

you know what, I'm beginning to wonder why people have their phone on speaker. And maybe it's to, maybe they're just obnoxious, but maybe, you know, when you're on a long phone call and it gets, the phone gets really hot against your ear and you get sweaty and it's just, and then there's all this talk about radiation from it and, or harmful

radio waves, I don't know how it works.

Roula (04:55)
Are you telling

me everyone is on speaker is preventing radiation, preventing sweat on their ear? I don't think so, Rosie. I think 99 % are just being so selfish and thinking that they only exist in that area with their own phone call.

Rosie (04:58)
No, they're definitely not.

Yeah,

they're not thinking about anybody else. And I do wonder maybe, are we becoming less empathetic as a society and less thoughtful? It's more about me, me, me, which

Mm, is okay to a certain extent, but damn, so many people have phone calls on speaker. It's interesting that it's an issue in the Netherlands as well as here. So it doesn't seem to be a cultural thing.

Roula (05:40)
No, it's it's became a universal thing. And what I find we come back to this often on our episodes, Rosie, like someone fart, you don't say anything. And if someone with their phone on the speaker sitting next to you, no one say, can you please take it off speaker? Because people get aggressive and take it personal. Even if you ask it nicely, I'm not saying say it's a brutally or aggressively.

Rosie (05:43)
Mm.

Mmm.

Roula (06:07)
But you feel like you're not in your right to tell people when you have two, three persons around you in public transport. It's why there must be something that that people become aware a phone call is in your ear and preferably not the public transport.

Rosie (06:12)
Yeah... Mmm... Yeah...

Yeah. Yeah. So what do you have to say to these people who are always having phone conversations on speaker in public?

Roula (06:35)
Just put your earpiece, stop having it on speaker, it's rude. It's downright rude.

Rosie (06:45)
We're going to catch you in the next episode. We have done this in under six minutes, everybody.

Roula (06:50)
We have one minute left. Bye. Thank you for listening. Ciao.