There are a million reasons why shaming someone can be bad. Ultimately, who am I to judge how people dress or decorate their bodies, so long as it doesn't harm me?

But when some asshole on the bus is yammering his sex life at high volumes, I think we've swung too far in the other direction. There's a time and place for public shaming, and being on a commute-time bus meets those requirements.

It's interesting how different standards for behavior on public transit are over there compared to the US. The €100 fine for playing music out loud introduced by Irish Rail sounds heavenly. Here in Dallas, half the trains I get on have someone openly smoking (cigarettes, weed, meth) on them and the rare transit security officers supposed to be doing something about it are the ones playing loud videos on their phones!

I wonder what an actual survey would yield. This article is “What do people imagine is the reason why some people play their phones out loud on buses and trains?”

And I suppose that’s neat for hypothesis generation but I think a few minutes thought could come up with all of these. Perhaps next time I will try to politely ask. Wish me luck. Hope I don’t get stabbed.

Here’s my extra hypothesis: some people actually don’t know what’s going on - they stop at the top of the escalator and look around; they stand in the middle of the aisle with their shopping cart blocking it; and they don’t have a clue that the TV volume is high

Tragedy of the commons which is a symptom of lack of common culture. That is, since not everyone has been raised under the same culture and norms, there will be misunderstandings about what is acceptable. More regulation and fines[0] to solve what is mostly an educational problem seems unfortunate

0. From TFA: In the UK, the Liberal Democrats proposed legislation that would make playing content out loud a fineable offence of up to £1,000.

I've had to answer a urgent phone call on a bus once (on headphones) and I felt bad about that.

I don't understand how can you even think this is ever acceptable.

However, same as the 54% mentioned in the article I won't ask them, but for a different reason: noise canceling headphones means unless someone is playing a concert, it won't bother me.

Basic lack of consideration, or, no penalty being an asshole.

These people playing their phones out loud on the buses and trains have one similarity we're not allowed to say, that answers why.

There is not a mention to the deprecation of 3.5mm audio port by the largest manufacturers.

I mean, a couple of people and I are in this situation, more or less. Corded headphones were cheaper, didn't require pairing and didn't have rechargeable batteries; they either worked fine or didn't work.