Why Singaporeans use their phones loudly on the MRT/public places. A theory by me

Why Singaporeans use their phones loudly on the MRT/public places. A theory by me - Redpanda

TheThronglerReturns12d👍 4/AnythingWhatever

Why Singaporeans use their phones loudly on the MRT/public places. A theory by me

Lots of post pandemic Singaporeans, including myself ask this question. It seems like it's more common here than in other Asian cities. But why do we always see this? I asked a similar question about two years ago and based on my own observations. Here is what I think: 1. Many of these are middle-aged to wlderly people. They used to mainly read newspapers prior to the pandemic. The pandemic led to the rise of Social Media usage and TikTok outside of the younger generations, as I have observed with my own family, leading to increased phone usage outside. Since many are...newer to using their phones outside, and not using your phone loudly is more-or-less an unwritten rule (until just a couple of months ago), many might not know. And the fact that these new written rules are merely advisories pasted on the walls means that it would be ignored 2. Older people are also not used to headphones, and headphones nowadays are more difficult to set up for the less tech literate, especially as Bluetooth is more popular and headphone jacks are gone. Also, contrary to what some might instinctively think, it's not because of age-related hearing loss. 3. Why Singapore specifically? Singaporeans are generally non-confrontational in public and are scared of directly addressing the matter (kiasi). It's our nature, IDK why specifically, probably due to our heavy surveillance or internet vigilantes (STOMP in the past, TikTok today) but even I feel that way. I don't feel comfortable asking someone to reduce their volume as I fear they would resist and argue with me. This leads to a Bystander effect where we feel someone else would address the issue. In Hong Kong or even KL, you are more likely to get confronted for stuff like this. For example, i stood on the left of the escalator in HK by mistake (they stand on the other side) and someone tapped my shoulder asking me to shift. In SG, people would merely stand behind the person standing on the wrong side, rarely asking them to shift.

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4. the individual does not think and/or care about the effects of its conduct on other individuals in its vicinity in the particular or society in the general

Some old people know they have a certain level of privilege which builds a sense of entitlement that they can do or say whatever they want with no blowback. They can then rudely demand seats on busses/MRT carriages and proceed to play their games/videos at full blast knowing that people won't call them out on it but if they do, they'll just play the feeble old person card.

I seen some post on the internet where they confront this kind of behaviour by just going up to the person and looking at their phone right next to them, like watching video with your friend. When the person inevitably gets uncomfortable and ask wtf are you doing, the confronter would say like huh you play so loudly i thought you want share with everybody to watch together mah so here I am, and they will get embarrassed and get the hint. My socially anxious introverted self could never, but I wish one day i could.

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Why Singaporeans use their phones loudly on the MRT/public places. A theory by me