There certainly is a reason. Phones are uncomfortable, which is why you move around in some primal way trying to get comfy. The trouble is that it's not that the handset is uncomfortable on your ear (though maybe that two if it's a dodgy phone), but rather that in one on one communication it is so important to be able to glance to someone, see their body language, and add that as a context to what they just said that when you can't do that, it becomes uncomfortable to vocally communicate.
A hand's free phone is a little bit better, but not by much, because at least the sound is coming from some place near by, not right in your ear. A phone which had earphones on both of your ears would also be a little less uncomfortable for the same reason. The main trouble though, like I said, is the lack of body language. Without body language, there is a huge mental effort in understanding the intentions of each thing said by the other person.
That extra effort is also the reason why driving while on the phone is really really bad, hands free or otherwise. In addition to the phone being right in your ear, and only one ear, the telephone company also removes huge portions of sound to compress more phone calls in to the same network data lines, making the call sound unnatural and telephoney. Some of you may have used software like Skype to call someone through the internet and you've probably noticed it's quite a bit more comfortable just from that improved sound quality, especially if using it hands free with good speakers.
Another interesting thing is that in all phones except video phones, people (or at least myself) seem to get agitated by the lack of body language and start to talk more and more loudly. If you can't see the other person, they must be pretty far away, right? Good reason to speak up? As soon as you add video though, it feels like they are right there with you and there's no reason to speak loudly or extra clearly anymore. It becomes a lot more casual and relaxed on a last not always remembers that distance traveled is directly proportional to the uncomfortableness of the call.....chao!
A hand's free phone is a little bit better, but not by much, because at least the sound is coming from some place near by, not right in your ear. A phone which had earphones on both of your ears would also be a little less uncomfortable for the same reason. The main trouble though, like I said, is the lack of body language. Without body language, there is a huge mental effort in understanding the intentions of each thing said by the other person.
That extra effort is also the reason why driving while on the phone is really really bad, hands free or otherwise. In addition to the phone being right in your ear, and only one ear, the telephone company also removes huge portions of sound to compress more phone calls in to the same network data lines, making the call sound unnatural and telephoney. Some of you may have used software like Skype to call someone through the internet and you've probably noticed it's quite a bit more comfortable just from that improved sound quality, especially if using it hands free with good speakers.
Another interesting thing is that in all phones except video phones, people (or at least myself) seem to get agitated by the lack of body language and start to talk more and more loudly. If you can't see the other person, they must be pretty far away, right? Good reason to speak up? As soon as you add video though, it feels like they are right there with you and there's no reason to speak loudly or extra clearly anymore. It becomes a lot more casual and relaxed on a last not always remembers that distance traveled is directly proportional to the uncomfortableness of the call.....chao!
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