The digital era is well and truly upon us. Millions working from home, the birth of the so-called ‘digital nomads’ who are able to work from any location in the world, providing they’ve got wifi, and it has been the saviour for many people at businesses and social levels. But the great big world of technology has its flaws, or rather some of the people who use it, or abuse it. For example, speaker mode on mobile phones.
A fantastic option for virtual meetings or when driving but otherwise it can be a right pain. Increasingly people are either conducting private conversations with the speaker mode on or sending and listening to recorded messages, trouble is a growing minority are switching to speaker mode in public places such as restaurants, bar terraces or around hotel pools, when the latter were available. Now, let’s be honest, we all like to try and have a sneaky earwig on what people may be talking about on the table next door, but the speaker mode has taken all the fun out of that.
Now, you can be enjoying a quiet meal or drinks with friends, having a little ponder on public transport or queuing up in a supermarket when all of a sudden, like a loud hailer, someone switches to speaker mode and low and behold we now have a public broadcast about someone’s private life. Can’t we use the phone for what it was designed for - to talk to people in private?