![\"Speakerphone](\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/speakerphone-cell.jpeg\" "\\"speakerphone")
We\u2019ve all seen them.<\/p>\nWe\u2019ve all seen them.<\/p>\n
People wandering around having conversations on speaker phone assaulting everyone around them with both sides of the call. The person you can see screaming into the little device and the person you can\u2019t see blaring their responses in a overly loud tinny little voice back. Then the offensive person gives you a dirty look and cranks the volume even higher when you raise your voice to place your coffee order. As if you’re<\/em><\/strong> the one being rude because you’re interfering with their conversation.<\/p>\n One of these days Alice… Pow! Zoom! Right to the Moon!<\/p>\n Or I’ll just slap the phone out of their hand and stomp it into the ground. Probably to applause from everyone else!<\/p>\n That\u2019s annoying as hell in a public setting & oddly seems to be something that happens a lot on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic spectrum. Although my next door neighbor likes to sit on her patio having similar conversations. In her defense, I think she\u2019s actually doing other things and is legitimately using the hands free speaker phone option because she\u2019s got her hands full.<\/p>\n They\u2019re the people you sleep with every night, or the people that you may sleep with occasionally.<\/p>\n These folks don\u2019t seem to understand that there\u2019s a nifty little function called do not disturb on their phone. They also don\u2019t seem to understand that some of us can\u2019t sleep with their phones lighting up every 5 minutes. After all who can sleep with a disco ball flashing in their bedroom?<\/p>\n I\u2019m one of those people that often has a hard time sleeping.<\/p>\n As long as it\u2019s dark, and quiet I can stay asleep, but any state change in the local environment will wake me up. The refrigerator changing it\u2019s normal rhythm is often enough to wake me. The power going off in the middle of the night will wake me because of the sudden silence. Even things like the A\/C or heater switching on at more irregular intervals than \u201cnormal\u201d will wake me.<\/p>\n So you can imagine what it\u2019s like for me if there\u2019s someone obsessively checking their phone for a message or reading new emails. It probably doesn\u2019t help that I\u2019ve got great night vision and can see well in nothing more than starlight.<\/p>\n It\u2019s because of this that I am appreciative of DND and more so of the \u201cBedtime<\/a>\u201d settings on my phone. After about 10:30 my phone goes into DND automatically. By 11:00 my phone is in bedtime mode (so is my nifty watch). This means that no lights, whistles, or bells are flashing through the night. Unless you\u2019re on a very short list of people, you\u2019re not going to be able to reach me until morning, after all that\u2019s why God made voice mail! Hell, my phone doesn\u2019t come out of DND until after 7:30 am. I prefer to have my morning coffee in peace, thank you very much!<\/p>\n Now imagine me laying in bed asleep with a person next to me who refuses to activate these features.<\/p>\n The light from the phone penetrates my eyelids, and I\u2019m awake. I open my eyes to see if there\u2019s something going on. Nope, their phone is sitting on the nightstand but illuminating the walls & ceiling. Okay, I close my eyes again and go back to sleep.<\/p>\n This cycle is repeated 20 or 30 times (due to notifications, email, occasional text messages, etc.) each night. Add in almost incessant snoring, mumbling in their sleep, trips to the bathroom, and it shouldn\u2019t be any wonder that I generally liked living alone in a tiny little apartment. Even though some of the neighbors were completely out of their damn minds and their personal issues sometimes robbed me of a decent night\u2019s sleep.<\/p>\n As an aside, since moving back to my house I\u2019ve lost about three hours of solid deep sleep a night. It\u2019s not uncommon for me to be sleeping on the couch or floor in another room.<\/em><\/p>\n However there\u2019s another factor in this that you may not have considered. Those times when the other person is actively checking their mail, messages, or notifications. They\u2019ll be laying there reading things, and because the phone is like a damn searchlight in my face I\u2019m awake and reading their phone too.<\/p>\n Then I get in trouble because I know stuff that I wasn\u2019t supposed to know. I get accused of going through their private messages. I don\u2019t\u2026 That would imply that I care. Nope, I\u2019m just reading what\u2019s on their display over their shoulder because they\u2019ve<\/strong><\/em> woke me.<\/p>\n I guess there are those who might think I should politely not read the information but here\u2019s the thing. You know that I\u2019m going to wake up, if you really wanted privacy, you\u2019d get up and go elsewhere to read rather than shining it in my face.<\/p>\n All this is to say; use the features on your phone!<\/p>\n On the iPhone just open the conveniently located control center and tap the little half moon. That will turn on \u201cDo Not Disturb<\/a>\u201d. If you\u2019re using a later version of iPhone that has the bedtime reminders, set it up. You can even schedule automatic DND between certain hours. \u00a0Another helpful thing that used to work, is that just putting your iPhone face down would silence it and even if it doesn\u2019t completely silence it, at least the phone won\u2019t be lighting up the whole room.<\/p>\n I can tell you, it will be appreciated by your other half or just your guest for the night…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019ve all seen them. People wandering around having conversations on speaker phone assaulting everyone around them with both sides of the call. The person you can see screaming into the little device and the person you can\u2019t see blaring their responses in a overly loud tinny little voice back. Then the offensive person gives you … <\/p>\n![\"dnd](\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/dnd-iphone.png\" "\\"dnd")
But there\u2019s another class of folks that can be just as annoying.<\/p>\n![\"Sleep](\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Sleep-Schedule.png\" "\\"Sleep")
I hit the DND button at dinner, before a Doctors appointment, during meetings, massages, or even drinks with friends (back when we actually had dinners or drinks with friends).<\/p>\n