Flying Was Already the Worst. Then America Stopped Using Headphones.

Bring back the headphone jack. Dumping the 3.5mm jack is what brought this on.
It is simple as that. I do not want to worry about the headphones being charged and losing another charging case and making more room for another thing to charge where i charge everything else.
I do not want that at all.
It was the dumbest thing to make me need batteries for headphones. And I don't do any of this stuff that is in the article. But BRING BACK THE JACK.
- I am still salty about this. I was generally neutral about Apple until the headphone thing, and now I just loathe the iPhone for forcing the bullshit of Bluetooth headphones in the world.
- People have been loud and obnoxious since long before Audio jacks were a thing, and they’re going to continue being loud and obnoxious long after your grandkids ask “what’s an audio jack?”
  Your glasses are nostalgia-tinted. The jack or its absence didn’t prevent or cause this.
  
  Yeah I mean boom boxes existed in the 1980s.
- Are those iPhones? Because I have an audio jack
  
  Most recent Androids don't have an audio jack either. Samsung dropped it from their flagship products back in 2020, and that change made it slowly throughout their line. The Google Pixels don't have headphone jacks, the Moto Edge I use doesn't have a headphone jack, etc.
  Honestly, if you have a a phone made in the last few years that does have a headphone jack, I'm curious to know what kind.
  
  Because I have an audio jack
  Does it fit a standard 3.5mm headphone set? No? Then it's a 'jack' and not a jack.
  
  I don't even use it but every phone I've owned had/has a jack.
  
  You're in the minority
- Hot take, but people that want 3.5 jacks back are just a (very) vocal minority. I've never met a single person IRL that prefers wired over wireless, I sure don't miss getting my cable snagged on things or just having it dangling around. I have a nice set of wired Sennheisers for my PC and then decent wireless buds I use when I'm out.
  The headphone jack is not gonna come back. Buy an adapter if you care that much or just use wireless buds like 99% of people these days. Mine last a full 10 hour shift with battery to spare, a normal 8 hour shift isn't gonna kill the batteries on your buds unless you buy 10$ garbage.
  Edit: also the 3.5 jack or cable generally stopped working or got fuzzy/bad connections long before the buds themselves started to go. Had to replace headphones so many times cause the jack got shitty or the cable wore out due to use. Sure the batteries in wireless buds will lose capacity over time but my current pair is over 2 years old and I only charge the case once a week with 40 hours of use per week.
  
  This is just stupid. The point is having options. It's not like having a 3.5mm jack stopped you from having wireless buds. What do you mean “prefer wired over wireless” when everyone had the choice of both since fucking forever
  
  Fun fact - a 3.5mm jack doesn't stop you from using Bluetooth!
  
  Instructions unclear. Ended up with a modern FLAC player with a headphone jack, now it's full of music and I'm pirating again. Yo ho ho!
  
  It's almost like that 99% is because they don't have an alternate option.
  I've had phones from the '90s that still work, so not sure what $5 headphones you were using or what you were doing with them. I'm fairly confident that no matter what price point none of your pod things will function 20-30 years from now. Is that mean you haven't lost them by then.
  
  When I worked for a phone manufacturer I learned that their market research found that features like a headphone jack and SD card slot were pretty exclusively needed at the budget end of the market while the higher end generally didn't care about the lack of these features. I don't know that I fully agree with this, but to some degree it kinda makes sense
  
  absolutely incorrect you strange person. I will never use wireless headphones. I don't need to charge my wired ones and they always work
- Just buy a pair of USB headphones.
- Phones still all have the tiny speaker for private listening tho

How do people not realize this?
Take your phone off speaker phone. It isn't a difficult concept. Entitled assholes. Keep your voice down so you don't irritate the hell out of others. I don't want to hear about your intestines. (BTW not aiming this at the op just at those that can't figure this out.)
- Calling out rude people needs to be normalized. Stop being polite to those who aren't.
  
  Have fun with that...
  I have called out rude people both politely and bluntly. Always is a conflict. So, just prepared to get into it.
  
  Calling out rude people needs to be normalized.
  "It looks like it's hard to hear when you use it like that. Why don't you use it like a phone?"
  
  In theory a great idea. But more and more people are walking around with guns and more and more people believe violence is the answer to everything and more and more people are just completely unhinged because they have main character syndrome. I'm not risking getting shot.
- Take your phone off speaker phone.
  Kids and idiots base their phone usage off vapid camera-ready idiots on reality TV whose entire usage is to play for an audience. They don't understand that holding their phone like a slice of pizza
  is against the design
  makes it harder to hear
  ruins the noise cancellation
  looks absolutely ridiculous
  may be delicious. Try it!
  And so it's "monkey see, monkey do."
  
  I'm Norwegian, and travelled to the US in 2004. I remember people on the bus using their phones like this. On public transport. Never saw that in Norway back then.
  
  I don't know about this. In my experience, the speakerphone speaker is way higher quality and easier to hear than the normal phone one. I just don't make phone calls
  
  The harder to hear might be true for the people they are talking to. But for the one holding the phone that we are talking about it is actually easier because of how the speakers are aimed. Personal experience on this.
  But if they would take it off speakerphone then the speaker is at their ear.
- I had a flight back home from Vegas not too long ago and there was a loud woman who could not shut up near me. Even with my earbuds in I could still hear her going on about nonsense. And when we were trying to deplane there was a couple near me as well who were very vocal about how frustrated they were that it was taking so long for people to get off, because they just had to go smoke a cigarette 🙄
  
  Pro tip: if you want to get off faster, fly first class. Not many in front of you.
  For those that say it’s too expensive. That’s what credit cards and checks are for. (Yes I’m being a smart ass for the past part).
- Say, your telephone is sounding."
  "Oh!" Matt fumbled in his pouch and got out his phone. "Hello?"
  "That you, son?" came his father's voice.
  "Yes, Dad."
  "Did you get there all right?"
  "Sure, I'm about to report in."
  "How's your leg?"
  "Leg's all right, Dad." His answer was not frank; his right leg, fresh from a corrective operation for a short Achilles' tendon, was aching as he spoke.
  "That's good. Now see here, Matt-if it should work out that you aren't selected, don't let it get you down. You call me at once and-"
  "Sure, sure, Dad," Matt broke in. "I'll have to sign off-I'm in a crowd. Good-by. Thanks for calling."
  —Space Cadet, Robert A. Heinlein, written in nineteen fucking forty eight!
- It's Apple's fault.
  They took away easy to use 3.5mm headphones.
  Bluetooth headphones are a lot more complicated to use. And 3hr battery life earbuds won't help u on a 12 hr flight.
  
  A cheap adapter and you can use regular headphones again

Obvioisly if someone's on speaker phone it's because they want you to join in the conversation. It's your duty to gather round and give your loud & uninformed opinions

If it's on speaker they want you to join the conversation, so don't feel shy about joining and taking the conversation where you want it to go.

~~America~~ Ignorant, selfish pricks, stopped using headphones.
Let's be real. You have to be pretty self absorbed to not realize how ignorant it is to walk around playing your music out loud or having a conversation on speakerphone instead of putting the damn phone to your ear.
And its not just flights. Its busses, restaurants, waiting rooms, forest trails.
- Some office environments too.
  Last place I was at, I worked nights pretty much solo. If my wireless earbuds died, sure, I'd play it out loud. I was the only one in the building. About an hour before anyone else started getting in, if my ear buds still hadn't charged enough I turned it off.
  Partially to be respectful, and partially because some people get offended by metal even if they can't understand the lyrics. And I mean, yeah, some bands can have unprofessional lyrics. I get it having been in the working world so long.
  
  I feel this. There was one time where I was playing metal over my speakers, but I was the only one in the office and I was not playing it loudly. After a while a security guard was doing rounds and asked me "what the hell" I was listening to. "Cattle Decapitation," I said, and they wrinkled their nose like someone shat in the trashcan and went on about how they can't how anyone would like "that stuff" -- I shrugged and said me neither and got back to my work.
- Oh there's an easy solution. Talk loudly right next to someone carrying on a conversation out loud on the phone.
  
  Join the conversation.
- My mother does the speakerphone thing but she's also half deaf from a lifetime of loud blue collar work. It's never as clear cut as you think
- I blame apple. It's a direct result of them fucking with 3.5mm jack.
  It used to be simple - plug in wired headphones.
  Now I have to have Bluetooth headphones with shitty battery life and skills to connect them.
  Guess what - my mom was able to use wired, she cannot handle wireless it's too complicated for her.
  Thank you apple assholes. All because u wanted to sell another product - people can't use headphones anymore.
- I don't think there's a big difference between using the speakerphone than talking to someone next to you.
  
  People who habitually use speaker phones do not understand the concept of "inside voice" that everyone else learned in 1st grade.
  And those people should be sent to The Hell of Infinite Screaming Babies.

New iphones come with a USB-C cable.
That’s it.
They formerly came with cable, charger, and wired ear buds appropriate to the phone.
Airlines distribute 3.5mm jack ear buds, if any at all.
It’s already a potential failure point expecting people to remember to carry an accessory allowing them to listen privately even if one is provided with the device on an incredibly common connection type.
But now they’re not included, you have to buy specialty USB-C ear buds or expensive airpods. More points of failure.
Haven’t even touched on the asshole factor of individuals just not giving an F and listening to their devices on speaker without regard to their fellow humans.
Every single flight I’ve been on there has been at least one individual VoIP calling, video watching, or gaming on their cell phone speaker that needed to be told to stop by the cabin crew.
- Many countries have made it illegal for phones to not use USB-C. Would be nice to also make it illegal for them to omit the 3.5 mm jack too

I can't stand going to a restaurant and having to hear a child's tablet playing a video.
- It's a thing that inconsiderate people and just plain bad parents do
- It does keep the kid from talking loudly and fidgeting and running around. But yeah if the tablet/phone is loud it's annoying.
  
  My kids are loud too. What keeps them from talking loudly and running around in a restaurant is me. (Why no fidgeting?) If you've got restaurant money but no more sanity or time, then bring them to fast food, not a nice place with social norms.
  Fuck yes it's hard. Everyone has excuses, every child is different. None of those excuses are everyone else's problem.
- or a movie theater......
- Do kids refuse to wear headphones?
  
  Their parents don't even bring headphones
  
  Half the electronics on sale don't even have a audio port and you have to do Bluetooth bs.

It only takes one asshole in a crowded subway car to ruin it for everyone. I like to read on the subway, but they're basically telling me that if I want to drown out their tiktok videos, I need to bring something with me with my own audio to listen to over headphones, just to not hear them.

Make America feel shame again.
- I blame apple for fucking with 3.5mm jack

People in this country are shit pigs and they resent anyone that tells them that obvious truth.

I wonder if drug dealers also do this.
(Henry's phone rings with a machine gun ringtone. He answers it on speakerphone without a second thought.)
Yo, Peter! What's up, man?
Henry, we need to talk about the new shipment of snow.
Yeah, what about it?
Tom's got a fresh batch. Just crossed the border this morning. But we need to be careful, last time it was cut with too much crap.
Yeah, Tom is such a greedy bastard. What do you say we skip the payment part, and just paint the walls with his brains?
I thought you would never ask. I'll bring the shotgun. See you at the train station at 6.
Cool see ya there. Bye.
Bye.
(Henry looks at the bewildered people around him.)
What are you all looking at?
- You jest, but I've spent a year+ homeless, often around fentanyl/meth addicts/dealers.
  I've heard conversations very similar to this, albeit with more slang, many times, either just on speaker phone, or with the volume turned up so loud without the speakerphone on that you can hear the whole convo anyway...
  I've heard this many times, on buses packed with people, at encampments, in shelters, at bus stops on the street, etc.
  They don't look around bewildered and surprised afterward. They act jubilant, cocksure.
  They don't give a fuck.
  
  This feels like something all the dealers who are selling openly on social media would do. Just stupid as fuck
  
  Reality is too absurd. You just can't make satire of it when life is already satire of whatever delusional fantasies I have in my head.
- Sounds like an Ed Wuncler III spin off. “The fuck y’all looking at?”
- It does make for a pretty good skit
  
  LOL, that was great!
  I can’t wait for the AI tools to get good enough for me to make my dreams come true. At the moment, I could probably make a comic book of it though.

Why does that article feel so disjointed? Tgis paragraph was especially random:
“I engaged once with a guy who had a different opinion. He was like, ‘I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s bothersome.’”
No explanation or attribution for the quote. Just sandwiched in there
- It's the text equivalent of a sixth finger.
- Gotta get that word count up
- they had to get some number of quotes from random people. It's just low quality reporting

My steam deck has a headphone jack.

This is not newsworthy

The 3.5MM jack isn't coming back, but having USB-C adapters would be a good compromise. I don't see any major phone maker shipping them though, and you know Apple would charge $40 for it. Even Anker's is like $18, and they are the current "good, but not crazy expensive" accessory brand.
- I wanted to joke that the Apple adapter would be way more expensive, but it seems to be 10€. Maybe that would work?
  
  Wow, I was NOT expecting that to be less than Anker. Granted it'll probably be the same with shipping tacked on.
  https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MW2Q3AM/A/usb-c-to-35-mm-headphone-jack-adapter
  
  funnily enough I've only heard good things about that Apple adapter, so yeah probably
- There will always be a market for people like me who won't buy devices without a 3.5mm jack
- USBC Adapter is another failure point.
  People will lose it or forget it.
  I don't care - I want my 3.5 mm jack back, I won't ever forgive it. Also most phones sold on the world have 3.5 mm, just not the models sold in US.
  My mom could use 3.5mm no problems, she can't use Bluetooth - too complicated for her. Apple is a problem.
- It could come back immediately if a law was passed requiring it but we're too busy fighting about social issues to actually expect the government to do it's job.
  
  Are you actually saying that social issues are less important then a headphone jack? Like, I would prefer a headphone jack, so much so that I simply buy phones that have them, but it's not that important.
  
  They could also bring back 24-pin serial connectors, the old ps/2 mouse and keyboard connectors and physical keypads.
  They’re not going to.
  The vast majority of people are going to be buying one version of Bluetooth headsets or another anyway. The wired headsets they’re not shipping were mostly just e-waste, and the jack represented another point of liquids ingress on your phone.
  
  A law. A law to mandate 3.5mm headphone jacks on cellphones.
  That's the dumbest thing I've read all week.
- Am I the only one remembering Anker as the #1 sewing machine brand?

I was flying back from Jersey and on one of the flights a passenger in the front had to be told three times by a flight attendant to silence her phone. The last time we were in the middle of takeoff.

Ah, we're back to the Nextel era, hooray! Which itself was caused by the fact that Nextel PTT was just more convenient to use by grab-and-talk than it was to bother opening the phone and switching to the handset speaker.
Tech bros and AirPods caused this current problem. Give a person something expensive, easy to lose, and unreliable that runs on batteries, they're going to choose the safer loud option while traveling. Plain and simple. Tech bros see it as profit, completely ignoring the societal implications because that's not their problem.
Affordable common wired headphones included with the device that don't interfere with the power jack, nor require a battery, should always be the way.
Edit: Spelling
- Damn so many Nextel push to talk ads just came rushing back into my memory.
  Also, how the fuck are AirPods “unreliable”?????? I have a 1st gen pair that still works just as well as my other AirPod pro pair. They have hours of battery life and the case itself has an internal battery bank. How does profit have anything to do with wireless audio and the removal of phone jack??? They didn’t take away the jack to sell more headphones LMAO.
  I hate wires and I’ll physically fight anyone who says we shouldn’t do wireless simply because some anssholes exist.
  
  Everything has its place. At my desk with my computer, I don’t want to worry about keeping something charged, and it’s only ever connected to my computer, so I’ll use wired. If I’m listening to music at home or playing games on the couch I’ll use wireless over the ear headphones, and if I’m out and about I’ll use my AirPods.
  
  I've wasted countless hours waiting for people on zoom calls to sort out their stupid air pod issues.
  They didn’t take away the jack to sell more headphones LMAO.
  That is absolutely why it was done.
  
  Where you at dawg? The whole city is behind us!
  Gonna spend the rest of my response over the obvious triple question mark. (And I have a Motorola BT headset from 2006 that still works, AirPods are not that, for the record. They were always eWaste.)
  Had a first gen pair that randomly die in sequence during meetings, they aged to uselessness in under 2 years. No way to replace the battery, obviously. Audio behaves weird sometimes. Unreliable - I also meant a meta-reason as to why people don't use them in airports pre-flight. The battery life is unreliable if you forgot you used them earlier and didn't recharge, or rather, short. So you aren't looking at all-day wear and listen, you have a finite amount of time. I've also on a few occasions almost dropped the tiny buggers on flights when taking them out to hear flight attendants, which makes me avoid wearing them on some flights so I don't lose them forever. Anker actually makes a pair of around-ear projection headphones that work all day, the battery is obviously bigger, and won't bother mentioning the model because not trying to shill them.
  Unrelated general stuff: AirPods were also an homage as their existence made every other company produce tiny firecracker ear devices. Samsung has a pair that one earphone just stops working as loud as the other, who knows if it was ESD or ear wax or fate. Not anything to do with unreliability mentioned above, obviously, that's a Samsung thing.
  Probably would be more usable if they were as cheap as they cost to make that a person could just own two or three pairs and just swap them from the charge case, but that would also accelerate eWaste.