Playing music or videos out loud on your phone is bemoaned by many - but in the future, it might not seem so outlandish

It could be a teenage boy slouching on a seat on the top deck of the number 29, holding his device inches from his face, either unaware or indifferent that everyone else can hear what he's watching too. Or a woman taking a phone call on loudspeaker before scrolling at volume through her social feed. Surveys suggest that many do find this modern phenomenon - known as loudcasting, sodcasting, or headphone dodging - similarly frustrating. In recent years, Ofcom, YouGov and Transport for London (TfL) have all published polls showing the vast majority of people dislike it. TfL has just relaunched its Travel Kind campaign across the London transport network this summer, reminding people to use headphones. The phenomenon has grown as we become ever more connected. Figures published in July by Ofcom show that mobile data use has increased by 13% year-on-year in the UK. 5G is being rolled out across the country, meaning that more people can get faster connectivity while travelling. And research has found that many data packages have become cheaper, meaning customers are less likely to have to ration their data use when out and about. So as we become ever more online in public, will we see increasing attempts to clamp down on loudcasting? Or will it end up becoming as normal a part of our soundscape as the hum of passing traffic or the roar of a plane's engine thousands of feet above us? This phenomenon isn't entirely new and neither are our reactions. Boomboxes in the 1980s and 1990s, for example, caused a stir. Bath University professor David Ellis points out that each new technological trend - including the very use of mobile phones - has often prompted odd looks when deployed in public. "I remember when my mother was mortified that I was walking down the street with a phone to my ear," he says.