17/11/2025
Louisa Guise, author of How to Leave a Group Chat – a book about communications and smartphone use, has created a logo to remind listeners who have purchased the recently released audiobook version of her first non-fiction book to use headphones in public spaces, so that other people are not disturbed by unnecessary noise when out and about.
Louisa was inspired by the Parental Advisory warning logos that feature on items such as CDs and Video Games to alert parents to the fact that they contain things which might not be suitable for children. She believes that this small gesture can help remind people that they are not isolated when listening to their smartphones in public places and noises coming from their devices tend to annoy people around them.
“It used to be a common courtesy to take even a landline phone into another room.” said Louisa, “But now that we are so absorbed with our devices, we have forgotten to consider that other people might be bothered by our noise. Businesses rarely enforce headphone use now, it would be a powerful thing if they did. TfL recently had a promotional campaign about using phones on speaker, but from my experience of using their services nothing changed, and nothing was enforced or even mentioned by staff. The railways should be in a better position than most because they already have railway byelaws that they can enforce to stop this behaviour. Yet I haven’t met a train conductor who is aware of this.”
“As an artist who has produced and published an audiobook, I’d like to to try and help this situation, and I’d love it if other creatives would do the same.” She added.
Louisa is not the only one who finds noise from smartphones and other devices irritating. A poll conducted by JL Partners in January of this year, which was featured in the Sun newspaper reported that 80% of the general public feel the same way. 60% of those surveyed said that they were too afraid to speak up for fear of repercussions, with this number rising to 70% among women surveyed.
Referring to the survey, Louisa told us “80% is a huge number. I see a lot of scope for businesses to do more to help solve the issue, and to profit from making their spaces more comfortable. I have left restaurants without ordering desert, or not eaten at a place at all, because when I’ve walked in someone has been making a noise on a device – and sometimes it’s a member of staff.”
How to Leave a Group Chat is a ground-breaking popular psychology book about communication and instant messengers. It was written to help you understand your relationship with your phone better, and in turn give you the confidence and understanding to improve it so that you can become your best self. Smartphones and their use is a hot topic at the moment with countries banning children from using social media underage, more and more studies suggesting that early usage of devices is harmful for children’s development, and reports of people increasingly turning away from more modern technology and instead buying simpler (dumb) phones or even reverting back to Polaroids and postcards. This book looks at changes in communication and behaviour, and why we have the relationship with our devices that we do.
The Please Listen Responsibly logo is free to use and it can be downloaded from louisaguiseauthor.com
How to Leave a Group Chat was published by the Book Guild on Friday 28th June 2024. It is available from Waterstones or from audible as an audiobook.
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About the author
Cardiff born and bred, Louisa Guise lives to write and has had a number of poems published. How to Leave a Group Chat is her first non-fiction book which draws upon the knowledge gained from her long career as a communications professional. Louisa now lives in Reading with an army of houseplants, where, aside from writing, she enjoys yoga, fine dining and kayaking on the Thames.
Contact: louisa.guise86@gmail.com
Web:
https://www.louisaguiseauthor.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisa-guise/
https://allaboutdigitalmarketing.substack.com/
https://bsky.app/profile/louisaguiseauthor.bsky.social