In what world did we collectively decide that it’s acceptable to sit next to someone at a restaurant or bar and blast cat videos, sports highlights, or TikTok clips on speakerphone for everyone else to hear?
Somewhere along the way, public space started feeling a little too public.
Recently, United Airlines announced that passengers who refuse to use headphones could be removed from a flight. Honestly, that might be one of the greatest modern policies ever introduced. Imagine boarding a plane and not having to spend three hours listening to somebody else’s action movie, political rant, FaceTime conversation, or “hilarious” Instagram reels at full volume.
It raises a bigger question about personal space, etiquette, and respect.
For years, society has debated property rights. How tall can your fence be? What can you grow in your front yard? How many chickens can you keep? How loud can your music be before the neighbors complain? In neighborhoods across America, rules exist because eventually one person’s “freedom” starts affecting everyone around them.
Maybe it’s time to apply some of that same thinking to public behavior.
Not laws. Not regulations. Just awareness.
Take the driver who pulls up six inches from your bumper at a red light, as though getting closer somehow changes the color faster. Or the “close talker” at the grocery store line in King Soopers who practically breathes on your neck while unloading frozen pizzas onto the conveyor belt. Then there’s the person at the coffee shop conducting a full-volume business meeting on speakerphone while the rest of us pretend not to listen.
We call it etiquette. Personal space. Common courtesy.
The old saying “good fences make good neighbors” may not just apply to property lines. Sometimes a little space is the ultimate form of respect.
I’m always fascinated watching couples at Apple Ridge Cafe who sit on the same side of the booth. Part of me wonders how their necks survive the conversation angle. But clearly, for them, closeness matters more than comfort. Fair enough. That’s their space.
But public space is shared space.
And somehow we’ve blurred the line between private behavior and public consideration.
Take Uber rides. Are you the passenger who jumps into the front seat beside the driver, turning a simple trip into an unexpected social experiment? Or do you quietly sit in the back like the rest of civilized society? There are unwritten rules to these things.
Restaurants are another battleground. Parents hand kids tablets at dinner tables with volume levels set somewhere between “arcade” and “airport runway.” Nobody’s saying children need noise-canceling headphones at age four, but maybe mute exists for a reason. Maybe games without sound are perfectly acceptable during dinner.
This isn’t about becoming anti-social. Laugh loudly at a great joke. Celebrate birthdays. Cheer during the big game. Human energy is part of life.
But there’s a difference between living your life and forcing everyone around you to participate in it.
FaceTiming someone during lunch while they yell “Can you hear me now?” across the restaurant isn’t harmless. Listening to music or the news on speakerphone in public isn’t charmingly casual. It’s disruptive. The rest of the room didn’t agree to join your call, your playlist, or your TikTok feed.
As for people who buy homes near airports and then complain about airplane noise? I’m still undecided on that one.
But maybe the larger point is simple: respect the spaces around you, because they also belong to everyone else.
