Ideas & Opinions
An anthropological observation
By James on 15 December 2008
LONDON, England – Something’s been bothering me for a while now. Once I was affected by it myself until, even I realised that it isn’t necessary to hold the microphone part of the headset in front of your mouth if you want the person on the other end of the line to hear you.
Wireless headsets are popular, but it seems the wired headset is more popular still. After all, they’re probably packaged with more devices, and given the proliferation of music devices, it kinda makes more sense than the wireless version.
But still, it’s not surprising to see someone on the street, apparently unwittingly, holding the microphone to their mouths during a conversation. No doubt they’re actually cursing the designers in the process, wondering why there isn’t a simpler solution. The solution in question is, of course, to just let it hang, and the person will be able to hear you without a problem.
What I’d like to know is, why do people still do it? This isn’t new technology. Surely by now people would have worked it out. And even if they haven’t, they shouldn’t need to, really, should they? It should be blindingly obvious what to do. And herein lies the problem. It isn’t blindingly obvious.
But, what could be done about it?
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Tags | hand's free calling, headsets, Nokia
December 15th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
It’s not so much about people being worried that their voices can’t be picked up. Most of the time, I notice that it’s so they’re able to whisper into the mic as opposed to speaking at a normal volume. Why they just don’t use the phone without the headset, I have no idea…
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December 15th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Isn’t it more about increasing the signal to noise ratio? In a busy street, letting it dangle will simply pick up too much extra noise. By holding the mike to one’s mouth, the voice-to-noise ratio is dramatically increased.
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December 15th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
This seems insurmountable for some folks. Some time back there were a couple of phones that had flip-down arms (Sony z-100) and key covers and so on. They were all a sham. Just there to make the user feel like there was something in front of their mouth (they worked just as well when broken off). This seemed a clever solution to that issue.
I presume it’ll slowly disappear. I already do not see this issue much; people learn and change just fine.
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December 15th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
This seems insurmountable for some folks. Some time back there were a couple of phones that had flip-down arms (Sony z-100) and key covers and so on. They were all a sham. Just there to make the user feel like there was something in front of their mouth (they worked just as well when broken off). This seemed a clever solution to that issue.
I presume it’ll slowly disappear. I already do not see this issue much; people learn and change just fine.
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December 16th, 2008 at 4:20 am
Hi James, I live in Seal Beach, Calif, about 1.5 blocks from the beach. The surfers in our area jokingly call it “Hurricane Gulch” as the west wind whips around Point Fermin and heads directly to Seal Beach. My best reception is outside.
Thus, I call folks or take calls when walking the dog. If I use my bluetooth my callers will ask why it sounds like I am in a wind tunnel and there is no fixing it. If I use my wired headset they tell me it sounds better but still too windy. If I use the wired headset with the microphone close to my mouth, my callers are very happy and say that they can’t hear the wind.
I have recently switched from using bluetooth all the time to just about never and am in love with the wired headset (hs-43) that came with the N82.
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December 16th, 2008 at 5:22 am
Outside of blocking wind noise, I think most people are clueless. I love though that the action completely defeats the handsfree aspect of wearing a headset. I see it all the time as well.
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December 16th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
I’m aware I don’t need to hold the mic out, but I often do it just so its obvious I’m talking into it, and not simply talking to myself whilst walking down the street. If I’m not holding the mic, then I’ll hold the phone in my hand, as a huge number of people do whilst using headsets.
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January 7th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
I think it’s the perception of how close a person feels they are to their phone contact. If there is any evidence of extraneous noise noticed between the two callers the headset wearer will hold the mic closer to maintain their callers expectation of voice quality so as to not have an “mental audio” disconnect during their conversation.
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