So many people play videos or games on their phone/tablets with the volume at max that it wouldn't make a difference anyway.

Not been my experience. Once heard a guy playing loud music like the star trek 4 movie however.

That's the exception in my experience. The vast majority use earbuds.

During the work week, the nj transit trains leaving hoboken have a “quiet car” where phone calls and talking in general are discouraged and it’s wonderful.

It's pretty loud down there. Cell phones work on the elevated portion of the 7 and you don't hear too many people talking on the phone. The LIRR, on the other hand, has an epidemic of loud cell phone talkers.

My carrier in the UK supports WiFi calling (https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT203032). We have WiFi on subway platforms in London and I've been able to make phone calls.

Unless you want filtering, people are going to make calls anyway, and they don't need to be particularly tech savvy to do so.

Voip has been crappy enough to discourage casual use in my experience.

On the contrary, VOIP is good enough that I use it to make both international and domestic calls all the time, with Viber, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger, using both 3G/4G and WiFi.

For international calling, VOIP actually tends to be better than POTS. It's 50/50 for domestic, I usually just ring but my friends use VOIP.

It’s good at home but not in public is what I meant.

I used to commute on above ground trains, where you do get cell signal, and although there were business types talking on their phone, they usually weren't that loud.

On their commute most people are wearing earphones which will drown out external noise so they don't shout in their phones.

WiFi is unsuitable for the task, and won't stop VoIP. In reality, it's the noise the train makes that stops people from calling inside the tunnels.

The amount of tutting that would induce on the tube would be a sight to see.

It's kind of ironic that the tube is one of the last places on Earth where you get can respite from a lot of the most annoying human activity?

Just fyi, "gangsta" is such a dated, anachronistic slang term that it's use is now almost exclusively associated with resentful white Fox News types ineptly attempting to dog-whistle "black teens who don't give me the deference I think I deserve" (and occasionally "black athletes or entertainers I disapprove of for nebulously defined reasons"). I'd recommend the next time you need such a euphemistic term you go with the more timeless "urban youth".

"urban youth" is also a wolf whistle. Just say "kid".

You are of course right. I was offering (sarcastic) advice on how to convey the racist intent of the sentence in a manner that was slightly less crudely obvious.

Do you approve of black teens - or teens of any colour - listening to loud music in a public place without earbuds? Is it something the rest of the world should approve of, in your opinion?

The parent comment is clearly calling out the racial overtones on the GP comment and asking for more inclusive language. They're not talking about the obnoxious behaviour of teens (of any color).

The parent comment also - unironically and explicitly - stereotyped white people ("resentful white Fox News types").

Hypocrisy and outrage are an ugly combination.

As far as I can tell, they only stereotyped "white Fox News types" by describing them as "resentful," which is quite a bit different. To begin with, it's unclear who exactly the commenter is referring to.

I care much, much more about people who latch onto extremely minor public nuisances in order to stoke their own racial resentments. The parent commentator was clearly focused exclusively on black kids.

Put in your own headphones and get over it.

Don't think I've ever watched fox news in my life...