The theory I've heard is that people on reality TV shows would do this so the mics could pick up their conversations better. So naturally, brainless idiots without an original thought in their dense godforsaken skulls people who watch those shows started doing it in real life too because they saw popular people doing it on TV.
It's just a theory, but it seems plausible because it's clearly not how phones were designed to function on speakerphone or otherwise.
That's where the trend is putting books spine first into a bookshelf came from too.
The tv producers don't want to spend days asking for permission to use book spine graphics in the shot, not spend time blurring the film, so they flip the books around to hide all the spine art. It's on HGTV a ton.
If you find visual clutter distracting or upsetting, it's a pretty useful trick to still be able to own a bunch of books. Alphabetize your books, and you can still find them. And most people I know can find their favorites even without that.
It's kind of like getting mad at people who organize their books by color. If you're a visual person, there's a half decent chance you remember the color of the book rather than remembering the author's name.
Actually the holding the gun sideways was a practicality thing. When unloading a magazine rapidly you have limited control of the weapon's recoil. When holding a gun upright the recoil moves it upwards, holding it sideways moves it sideways.
Now imagine you're a gangter, 'bout to come up on some punk steppin' on your turf. You an da boyz gatted up ready to throw down. Get in the low-rider with your illegal Tek-9. Roll up on those fools ready to shed lead. Which way do you want your recoil going? Upwards? Or sideways.
Probably around the pandemic when people became extra wary about hygiene - at least that's my observation. I've also noticed that people listen to voice messages like this - if you're in a loud environment and don't have headphones, it kind of makes sense. It still looks stupid, and for normal phone calls it is stupid, since both the earpiece and the microphone are optimised for having the phone on your ear.
I am not ashamed to say I will talk on the phone like this often. I dont alway hold it to my mouth though just prefer more freedom with speaker phone. But I never do it in public
Right? I have another comment at -7 because it says you can hear the speakers better that way while driving.
I get the speakerphone hate. But if someone is in their car that's less annoying than blasting it through the stereo. So who cares how someone holds their phone in this scenario? Especially when there is an actual benefit to holding it that way.
This entire post is the stupidest case of gatekeeping I've ever seen.
It's because the speakers for the iPhone are on the bottom of the phone.
Edit: I meant the speakers that are used for "hands free mode", which is what the user in the image is doing. The reason why people hold their phone like this is because it directs the speaker sound straight at them (again, in hands free mode).
As a former iPhone repair technician, I can confirm this is both true and false at the same time. There's a speaker in the normal position for the ear as well, it all depends whether the user decided to put the phone into loudspeaker mode.
This comment coming from an Android user that's just as guilty of this at times.