Am I a Victorian pearl clutcher or is this rude?

[LazySusan11]

At a hotel went for breakfast met other colleagues and on the table next to us is another lady, she’s got her iPad propped up on the table watching an episode of something..without headphones. No awareness of others around her that she might be disturbing me this isn’t normal is it?

I’m in hotels a lot and more and more people are doing this sort of thing. Are headphones suddenly obsolete?

It would be nice if hotels, airplanes, trains etc. had a polite sign obliging people to use headphones/ear buds when watching something on screen.

In the interests of everyone of course!

Plain rude.

This drives me mad when people do this on the tube. I agree they are thick and just not socialised.

What really needs to happen is that the staff of wherever we are - train staff, bus drivers, waiters, receptionists, management - needs to have our back and respect customers who do not want our experience of their service ruined by these idiots.

Too, too often though the staff ignore it even when they can see customers upset, then just shrug and do nothing when asked. They should ask the offenders to turn down the noise or otherwise leave. We should publicise any establishment or service which lets us down in favour of these noise makers.

'He told me to f* off and said "don't listen then". confused When I asked him how I could not listen to his music on a tube carriage when he and his phone is in the seat opposite, he started to shout at me about the price of his £4000 suit (yeah right..), how I couldn't afford it, and to look at his suit, look at it and dream.'

I wouldn't have known whether to laugh in his face at how pathetic he was, or to just sit there slack-jawed at his stupidity and rudeness. Some choice eh? Totally agree that staff members should be tackling this and backing up customers who ask politely for people to keep it down. The more it gets tolerated, the more 'normal' it seems

I absolutely never set foot outside my front door without headphones and MP3 player (if I'm on my own). I use public transport and just cannot be doing with people's tinny noise, braying, bellowing into their phones, swearing etc etc. Often I can hear the din over the sound of my own music

Totally agree with others that this kind of behaviour is becoming normal. Some people really do just walk around in their own little bubble. I have asked parents to turn off the racket on their child's device before now (waiting room at work) and they always look surprised and turn it off immediately. I think most people are thoughtless and selfish, rather than being deliberately antagonistic. Doesn't make it any less annoying though

Dora, the problem with signs is that the people they are aimed at will either not read them (due to living in own little bubble), or will read them and not give a shiny fig what the sign says because I can do what I want and its my right etc etc. There used to be signs on London buses asking people not to play music out loud - barely a bus journey went by without some idiot's music blaring out of their stupid phone

Lottapianos I did laugh.. and laugh and laugh.. some other passengers did too, he carried on about his suit (which was all shiny and looked awful).

So glad that other people joined you in the laughter FlowerPot1234 He sounds like one empty-headed dolt

If the noise of the iPad was annoying just say. People are not mind readers and clearly she didn't know any better so it was unlikely to dawn on her throught passive motions.

I hope you weren't talking to your colleagues. I find it very annoying listening to other people when I'm having breakfast, total silence is the only acceptable thing.

grannytomine No because then we have to listen to the sound of people eating

So who decides which is worse? I don't want to listen to your chatter, you don't want to listen to people eating and other people don't want to listen to an ipad. Live and let live seems a reasonable approach to me.

I would have been annoyed too. DD (she's 11) sometimes starts watching or listening to something on her phone when we're in public but I always make her use headphones. I don't care if she or anyone else thinks I'm being old fashioned or boring, it's out of order.

It's certainly not a new problem on public transport - other people's tinny music has been an issue since at least the 1980s. I remember badly tuned or tinny music in outdoor public spaces then too. Not so much in restaurants though!

Of course it's different to conversation - it's not the volume but the tinny pitch that is the problem. Very rude indeed.

I think it's different to the pyjamas thing. I'm baffled by why anyone would wear pyjamas in public and would think they were strange, but would just shrug and tell it as a people watching anecdote - it's not intruding on anyone else and far easier to ignore than intrusive tinny noise.

You should've started an impromptu rendition of S Club 7's "Bring it all back" right next to her table. If she asked what you were doing you could've said you were trying to entertain the room just like she was with her ipad.

Other 90s pop bands and songs are available.

People talking to each other is not the same thing at all. It just isn't. I would find it more difficult to chat to someone if someone nearby was listening to some episode of something on their iPad without headphones. The noise disturbs me more, or something. Other peoples' conversations don't even register most of the time.

Nyz it isn't the same to you, other opinions are equally valid.

I might find a cheap pair of headphones (new ones so ok from a hygiene perspective) and start carrying them around with me and then offer them to the next person I spot (hear) doing this.

In what world is it ok? But I posted last week about the bad tempered German guy who was playing with the ringtones on his phone on the train and told me that the world didn't revolve around me when I asked (told) him it was annoying and to stop. He did stop though.

Maybe we just need to be less British and tell people they're being annoying. Because they are.

Oh yes and his excuse was the people opposite us were talking. We were on Eurostar, they were talking French, I'd zoned out. Didn't care. The ringtones were superannoying though.

It's rude but if you were all chatting (loudly) to each other, you could have been annoying her. Maybe it was her way of being PA?

disahsterdahling, and I might carry a notebook and pencil and ask you to communicate with your friends silently. The German guy was right, the world really doesn't revolve around you.

I just learnt a new word sodcasting

Though I was wondering exactly why some noises (like tinny music through an inadequate speaker, or finger nails on a blackboard, or sniffing or whistling) are vastly more intrusive than others (like other people having normal private conversations).

It's the pitch I'm sure, but there must be a better way to articulate it to people like my DD and granny on this thread who don't understand. DD plays TV through her phone in the peaceful living room it's really, really annoying. It's more annoying because she can use the actual fancy pants internet TV with whizzy speakers to watch the same program, it's not that she can only watch it on her phone! She doesn't understand why it makes me cross when she sits down next to me and plays TV through her phone instead of using the actual TV! Her slightly younger brother connects his phone to the TV to play music, but DD appears to prefer tinny rattling...

It is rude, for one, being on the I pad whilst in the company of other, and having your film on loud to distract people.

I hope she wasn't in her pyjamas too...

grannytomine

Nyz it isn't the same to you, other opinions are equally valid.

How is it the same?