People with no indoor voice.

[TheHuckster]

I remember reading somewhere that landline telephones simultaneously echo your voice into your speaker so that you maintain an "indoor voice." I'm not sure how much truth this has, and it could be just an urban legend, but it may explain why people tend to speak louder on cellphones, which don't have this.

[HYHYBT]

Landline phones (many of them, at least) do that. Are you sure cell phones don't? Why would they remove that?

[TheHuckster]

Landline phones (many of them, at least) do that. Are you sure cell phones don't? Why would they remove that?

I don't know. None of the cellphones I ever used did this.

[s_stabeler]

I'm pretty sure that in a landline, the speaker and microphone are connected to the same line- which is why you get the echo. In cell phones, they are separate- hence, no echo. It's not been removed specifically.

[telecom_goddess]

That can be annoying, especially when loud people laugh. I've had people scare the crap out of me with laughing loudly. On the other hand I hate it when people go the opposite way and talk so damn low I can't hear them at all. And mumble.

[blas87]

Especially mumblers who KNOW they mumble, and do it on purpose so they have a reason to get upset at someone for having to repeat themselves. That probably has an underlying personality or mental disorder, but I'm sure everyone knows someone who mumbles like Val Kilmer, then after one or two times asked to repeat, they get all Tyra Banks dramatic and start with the I SAID

Yup, hate people like that.

[Greenday]

Especially mumblers who KNOW they mumble, and do it on purpose so they have a reason to get upset at someone for having to repeat themselves. That probably has an underlying personality or mental disorder, but I'm sure everyone knows someone who mumbles like Val Kilmer, then after one or two times asked to repeat, they get all Tyra Banks dramatic and start with the I SAID

Yup, hate people like that.

I mumble a lot and I try to work on it. It's not easy. And it gets super freaking frustrating to have people every day asking you to repeat yourself because you couldn't get the words out right. I don't get to the point of being a dbag about having to repeat myself but it's insanely frustrating.

[bex1218]

I mumble, my love talks loud. We can never find a middle ground.

[Seshat]

My husband mumbles, I have a hearing disorder which can't be fixed with hearing aids (it's partly in my brain).


We've come to a compromise. I tell him which bits I understood: "mumble mumble Tony Abbott mumble dickhead mumble?" (translation: I understood 'Tony Abbott' and 'dickhead' but nothing else)

[HYHYBT]

I repeat back what I hear. This evening, for example: "You're going to buy a smoker?" "No, I'm going to buy US MORE CORN."