QUESTION: Is it acceptable to listen to videos on your phone at high volume on public transport?
This was what I was thinking yesterday, on the final leg of an eight hour round trip to West Cumbria.
The carriage on the Edinburgh to Dundee train was quiet and cosy and, given my toes had finally thawed (the derelict four bed I’d been filming was colder inside than outside) I might even grab a nap.
At this moment, a teenage boy in a beanie sat opposite me. He didn’t make eye contact; because his eyes never lifted from his phone screen.
It was loud. TikTok videos played one after the other, some for a few seconds until he tired and scrolled to the next clip. There was incessant gunfire in one that ripped through the carriage. I caught a woman’s eye – a look of shared bewilderment.
Surely he’d look up and realise. Instead, he scrolled to a man swearing and laughing and swearing some more.
I thought it might be a wind up – that Ant and Dec would jump out and say we’d all been pranked. The boy must have watched 30 clips and not once did his expression change.
Don’t look up
It’s said we’re becoming part robot, such is our reliance on feeding our brains with stuff – whatever our particular ‘stuff’ of choice, from cute kittens to cage fighting to life hacks to football.
And we don’t look up – to see the beauty of the east coast of Scotland flashing by on a train, the sun setting or rising, a smile from a passerby, a lady struggling with her shopping.
We miss the first steps of our children because our heads are down – or we’re trying so hard to capture it on camera to post on social media, we don’t take it into the memory box of our minds and lives.
Kids who see a magazine for the first time try to scroll down the page, or zoom in as they do on mum’s phone.
Hands up, this was me – I watched as my youngest did just this a few years ago.
And this boy was oblivious to the woman a metre away boring a hole into his head with my stare – for the hour and 23 minute duration of our journey.
And when you think about that – really think about it – that a device has made us blind to what’s happening in front of our noses, it’s kind of mind blowing.
Lessons in phone and noise etiquette in schools
Next question: Is it acceptable to ask such a noise-bearer, to please put the volume down? Is that a voice of reason or an out of touch Grinch?
I asked this on X, formerly Twitter, and everyone was as irked.
“So annoying. Happens all the time. Ever heard of headphones?” Said Bob.
“Don’t get me started,” said another, “and when people put their phones on speaker and we all have to listen? Argh!”
Here’s an idea. How about a lesson in phone and noise etiquette in schools? That’s not to say it’s just kids who blast – but it would be a start.
I didn’t muster the courage to ask this lad to quieten down. But if no one does, how will he ever know?
I’m sure you’ll let me know if I was right or wrong.
