Is it ever okay to play music or watch videos without headphones on your phone? 

Ever since the invention of the smartphone, people who take public transport have run the risk of having their journey disrupted by the sound of other people playing their music for the whole bus or train to hear. 

For some, it is one of the most irritating of all modern phenomena but Irish Independent columnist Kirsty Blake Knox has recently written that people are “being too precious” about the issue. 

Instead of getting annoyed, she suggested people try and enjoy themselves by trying to guess things about the life of the person from the music they listen to or the video they are watching. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, presenter Ciara Kelly said she understood the point Ms Blake was making but would much rather travel without sitting next to a loud distraction.

“I've been on a plane, kind of a row away from somebody who's watched a whole film on a tablet with no headphones, quite loud, and it is irritating,” she said. 

“I could see the people next to that person, kind of bristling and all - so, I get this, and that was kind of what I thought was the accepted viewpoint, as it were, on all this. 

“Do I want to sit next to somebody's Tik Tok videos for two hours on the way up from Cork or something? No, I probably don't.”  

A boy holds a smartphone with the TikTok logo on the screen. Picture by: dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo

Shane Coleman said he had heard the phenomenon compared to having to listen to people having loud discussions with their fellow passengers. 

“I think ‘braitheann sé’, it depends, as we used to write in our old Irish essay,” he said. 

“I love when I'm on a train and there's a group of people who are chatting and you can overhear. 

“There’s just something lovely about it, the social interaction, there’s a warmth about that and I do get a bit of a kick out of that

“I think there's a world of difference between that and somebody playing a film on their phone out loud with no headphones - I think there's something kind of obnoxious about that.”

Shane added that he personally would feel too embarrassed to ever listen to something in public without headphones. 

“The odd time I'm walking out of here and I put on music, or whatever, and it doesn't go straight to my headphones, I am mortified walking down the street if there's music coming out of my phone,” he said.

Irish Rail advises that "Music through headphones should be kept quiet enough as to not disturb" other passengers.

Main image shows Shane Coleman in the Newstalk studio. Image: Newstalk