Anybody else find life to loud, colourful and fast? Looking back at old tv things has made me long for the past.

[Superhansrantowindsor]

Am I being silly or is life just too hectic and busy. Big screens everywhere- on the bus , in the waiting room at the doctors. Loud music in shops with bright displays. Even billboards at the bus stop change and flicker.
I was watching an old documentary on YouTube and it just seemed like like was duller in the past but calming and just nicer.
Anyone else feel like this?

edited to say I’m sorry about the typo in the title.

Another thing that overwhelms me is the amount of signage everywhere. Walking or driving anywhere now you're bombarded with 'trip hazard', 'keep left', 'car park full' signs. In a local city recently I counted the direction/instruction/warning signs I could see whilst stopped at the traffic lights and there were 11. How are you meant to take it all in whilst driving?

https://www.eea.europa.eu/articles/noise-pollution-is-a-major]

Noise affects health, both mental and physical.

I have found my tribe.

I too cannot abide instructional videos. I want printed directions I can easily refer to. I want textbooks. Physical ones.

If I find a video on YouTube I want to watch- make it a proper length please , not just five minutes. What is the point of that?

As a massive introvert and probably somewhere on the spectrum, I adored lockdown and blossomed mentally and physically in a way I never did before. The peace and quiet was extraordinary. Like going back in time a couple of centuries. For the first time in fifty years, I felt I was able to live my life truly as myself.

The return to normal life really underscored the immense weight of coping with constant ( and as pps have pointed out) ever increasing and unavoidable sensory overload in daily life.

Even living quietly, it's unavoidable:

Get on a train? Harsh lighting, flashing adverts, booming announcements.

Buy a coffee? Far too many stupid choices, loud music

Go to the office? Harsh lighting, massively overheated, constant chatter

Supermarket? All of the above.

Teams meeting? Better than enduring the commute but what's with all the simultaneous pinging and @ing and ' I will post the link in chat' NO. Send me an email.

Doctor's surgery? Overheated, Muzak.

Restaurant? No chance these days. I love food and used to enjoy eating out but the whole atmosphere means it is no longer worth it.

Does the noise abatement society still exist?

Another frustration of modern life is 'the shop that you can't get out of'. Ikea that takes you through a 5 mile system or supermarkets that only have exits through crowded till areas that are always blocked by queues. The queues are long because they only have two open in order to force you through the self checkout machines which pip, beep and repeatedly tell you 'please wait a moment' or 'unidentified item'.

My friend asked me the other day if I thought I'd been born 100 years too late. I think she was right.

Can we add to the list of annoying modern inventions the online discount vouchers that you now have to search out before making a purchase at any chain restaurant or shop? And don't get me started on al the 3 for 2 offers at Superdrug that mean every quick purchase ends up being an exercise in weighing up the best way of buying.

The online discount vouchers are only designed these days to be confusing and not that easy to use or have so many conditions attached to them it's hard to know when you can use them
( the eating out ones are like this )
All in their favour not ours most of the time

Me too! But at least the music was better, wasn't it?!😃

It was, and so were the clothes!

I really struggle in my GP
surgery. The staff are by no means really young, but every time I am in they have house music blaring. Yes, I was around when it first came out but it’s not Creamfields.
Sometimes there are people who look really unwell and it’s like torture. Add the strip lighting as well.
This post made me think about when I bought my first house in the 90’s. All on a budget. Landline. A small stereo and a little colour portable telly I used to carry around with me. Didn’t even have a video.
I had lived in a busy family home and sometimes the solitude got to me, but it’s during those times I got to know myself. I read a lot. I walked a lot. I could only watch TV when something was on I wanted to see.
Nobody knew where I was when I went out.
I used to get up for work and out Chris Evans on, when he was on Radio 1.
Now it’s noise, connection and information from dawn until dusk. And I am not really into tech either.
I was watching Friends recently with a pal’s daughter and explained I was the same age as the characters when it came out. And while it’s fictional and I didn’t live in NYC, a lot of it rang true. Going out for coffee to meet people for starters.

I can remember going to the Oxford Circus one with my mum for the first time in 1983 - we both loved it, felt like a nightclub!

@Superhansrantowindsor
Absolutely massive yes to your original post.
Sensory overload all the time.
(I might go and watch Miss Marple now...or Bagpuss, would love to be there!)

@PeggyMitchellsCameo I used to get up for work and out Chris Evans on, when he was on Radio 1.

"Wake up it's a beautiful morning, Chris Evans on your radio"
I remember listening to that jingle whilst driving to work in my little red mini metro - no sat nav, no beeping, no screen - just me, Chris Evans and the sunshine.

Yep. Awful isn't it. The first bit made me laugh, doing loop the loop 500 times....

No wonder everyone has ADHD these days.

This sums it up really well. One of the things I noticed during lockdown was the silence in my garden. Usually there is a background noise of heavy traffic . It disappeared completely and the absence of that noise that I hadn’t even noticed before made me feel so much better. Also no more planes going over constantly.

My DF said to me recently that he thinks the world has gone digital and we are still analog. I think he is right.

Some of you might like the insights in these two books:
Quiet by Susan Cain
Sensitive by Jenn Granneman and Andre Solo

Can't you turn your sat nav off ? I never have mine on unless I'm actually going somewhere I need thr directions (and even then I actually prefer a printed map).

im staying at my parents tonight and as I type the only sound I can hear is the ticking of my great grandmother's grandfather clock which is strangely nostalgic and soothing.

Yes that's me. Definitely find it all very overwhelming.

Car lights being LED are hellish now. Even in daylight they are too bright but at night it's like knives in your eyes.

My GP surgery has a radio on in the waiting area with a notice saying DO NOT SWITCH OFF. It's so loud and obnoxious.

I used to drive listening to CDs but now I can't bear it and want that time for as silent as it gets.

I've started driving with sunglasses day and night to help deal with the stupidly bright LED lights! Not a perfect solution but helps reduce the glare.

Yes. Me too. OMG the difference on a journey at night is amazing. I'm not sure about the legality of it though.

IKEA has always been like that since they opened and you had to follow a route.
Maybe a few more tills on though in the early 90s.

Yes I very much agree.
I do live in the country and sadly it's just as noisy - at least in the area I live in.
Farm machinery is loud plus you get drivers and motorbikes screeching along the narrow roads

Yes I do this too, and 12 year old DD has recently been advised to do so in the car by her optician. She has an astigmatism and modern car lights cause her so many problems they were giving her migraines.

I'm absolutely stunned by these GP surgeries having loud radios / drum and bass. How utterly obnoxious. In a healthcare setting whereby people are attending due to ill health, anxiety and mental health and following bereavement etc. It is wholly inappropriate and unacceptable. I'd be questioning the partners at my surgery if they ever did this as it doesn't exactly show any common sense or compassion.

I've found my people!

We are quiet simple life people here, well as much as we can be in the modern world!

We limit DC screen time (even the teens) and try to choose educational programmes for our younger ones.

All my dc are school age now but when they were younger we loved spending our days just pottering around the house, doing jigsaws, baking, feeding the ducks, going for walks, gardening etc. we still do all this in the school holidays.

In a way we have quite an old fashioned lifestyle but that's the way we like it, simple pleasures!

Id highly recommend @lucysmam weekend threads usually titled "good morning what are you up to" for cosy calming threads!