> Can you imagine how goofy you'd look sitting at a coffee shop and just sort of staring into the middle distance and talking, as you take a Zoom call?
Honestly, people used to say the same thing about Bluetooth hands-free devices years ago, and now no one even bats an eye when someone talks using AirPods.
It still catches me off guard sometimes. Just a personal opinion, but it's a bit offputting because it's distracting to hear only one half of the conversation. My brain is dragged unwillingly into filling in the other half. Also we tend to talk kinda obnoxiously loud on the phone. But I guess that applies equally well to all public phone conversations.
To clarify, I'm able to ignore in person conversations. Phone conversations are more distracting especially when they're loud. I'm unwillingly drawn into conversations I'd rather ignore.
ca. 25 years ago, I remember seeing the first comic comparing people with hands-free with the "village idiot" and making the point that we couldn't tell regular people apart from the village idiot any longer, because it'd implicitly already become normal.
In other words: This was normalized a generation ago.
We absolutely do. And there are certain etiquettes that have evolved around airpods/ handsfree phone calls, that can make you weird or even rude to violate.
Honestly, people used to say the same thing about Bluetooth hands-free devices years ago, and now no one even bats an eye when someone talks using AirPods.