To think people should wear fucking earphones?

[SnarkMode]

Just had a long return train journey with a few changes. Without fail, every train had at least two people in the seats near me either watching videos or playing games on their phone with the volume up.

I know you can't expect complete silence in public but the repetitive tunes and sound effects on slot machine games are bloody annoying when you're continuously subjected to them for hours.

The train didn't have the option of a quiet carriage and it was busy ao I didn't have the option of moving away.

AIBU to think people should have more consideration and realise that the whole carriage doesn't want to listen to whatever shite they are playing/ watching?

It's not only annoying, it's worrying that so many people can't be unentertained or alone for half an hour. Maybe it's a side effect of Covid but I wish they'd get over it

YANBU. When I was on the train home the other day an off duty guard was sat in front of me watching some football match on his phone with the volume on max. I'm guessing it's not part of their job description to ask people to wear headphones.

Oh I found a solution to that one - make as much work related noise near them as possible. Even my most clueless colleague learnt to use headphones after the other people on teams couldn’t hear him for the sound of photocopying/work chat/rearranging the stationery etc 😆

We must get the same train. At this point I'm not even sure that earphones are helpful for the user or the people around them!!

In ye olden times (1980s) sometimes Walkmans were referred to as personal stereos....well its not really personal if half the carriage can hear the shitty music! Worst is when there's 3 or 4 people playing different stuff at volume level 600 on their headphones.

I think some people have forgotten that phones have a non speaker non headphones option where you hold it up to your fucking ear. Genuinely.

Some people phone call centres in publicly on speakerphone. Any fraudster could write down their various personal details and conduct fraud transactions on their cards.

I agree with all of the other comments on here. Because there are so many inconsiderate arseholes about, I just find it easier to put my own noise cancelling earphones in and either watch/listen to something or put pink noise on to block them out.

AIBU to think people should have more consideration and realise that the whole carriage doesn't want to listen to whatever shite they are playing/ watching?

But you are just an extra in their show. You don't get to tell them what to do.

For a huge proportion of the population, now, the world is the show they star in and everyone else is just an extra. Consideration for what other people want is as alien to them as consideration for what their electronic devices want.

I'm normally quite defensive of people being Mum-shamed but this is 100% the product of the iPad baby generation becoming of age, they're being given iPads as soon as they turn 1 to use 16 hours a day and then parents wonder why they have developmental problems and aren't socialised.

Don't reply to me defending this insidious practice, I don't care, it's bad parenting regardless of your children's neurodivergent status.

Completely agree OP - it’s so inconsiderate, but seems to be the cool thing to only care about yourself.

I bring my noise cancelling headphones so I can read my book without having to listen to everyone else’s music / videos

This. I sometimes wonder if I'm living in my own Enid Blyton world because it genuinely wouldn't occur to me to chuck my bottle into a hedge once I'd finished with it, or just abandon a half-eaten takeaway on the bus for someone else to boak at deal with. But going by the state of public transport, this is totally fine to some people.

We need the Wombles back - but this time, they MEAN BUSINESS.

I don't understand how they don't feel mortified. Just yesterday on the train ide left my phone on loud because I was expecting a call. Completely forgot and clicked on a friends video on fb.
As chandlers voice screamed out my phone I couldn't turn it down quick enough and I felt embarrassed. Is it an age thing?

I had this from a fellow passenger on plane yesterday. It was like torture.

The thing is you never know what reaction you'll get. A lot of people who behave like this genuinely just don't know any better, are ignorant or it's learned behaviour from others.

Others have no empathy and don't care about anybody else. They're the star of their own show 24/7. I don't know how any of these people hold down jobs.

If I'm not near enough to ask them to turn it down, I sit and imagine them in front of a firing squad. If I ruled the world that would be the punishment for not having all devices on silent on public transport. Or public anywhere tbh.

@HullaBallu Now imagining Uncle Bulgaria taking out litter droppers with an Uzi. [Happy sigh]

Agree that it is a long boring slog teaching your children to behave as if other people exist in public. Easier to give up on that.

Yes even people with headphones in with the volume turned right up. The tube is crammed. I will ask people to turn volume down even in this case, unless I’ve got my headphones in. I have to say it doesn’t happen too much on packed tube carriages. There are way too many grumpy people willing to say something on those, I’ve found.

Given all the support given to various disabilities now, and rightly so, misophonia is massively overlooked.

I'm ND but misophonia affects me more day to day. There will always be noise but anti social behaviour makes it so much worse.

I'm always happy to ask them to tone it down. Did it last weekend to a bunch of lads on a stag do who were very noisy on the train.

I told them that they seem like decent lads, and would they mind toning it down a bit, as I could hear them clearly over my own music played on anc headphones. They apologised and I had a giggle with them whilst waiting to get off.

I always go in with a smile and it rarely fails.

@Mabelface Well I think you have been lucky. My experience has been very different and sadly I don’t bother now. Not worth getting a smack

You've hit the nail on the head - I think that's a key change and they don't want to bother with linking to Bluetooth and putting on earphones.

Another legacy - it's become so normalised that it's acceptable because it's everywhere.

Just come off a bus journey and yes, loud phone conversations throughout despite the company of her DH

I had exactly that with a passenger on a train near me ( I travel a lot) and felt just like you!

YANBU . This is so annoying. Also people speaking on the phone the whole journey. Very often in a different language and im not being some weird xenophobr it's just as annoying in plain English. I just wouldn't dream of doing either . I wonder why these noise polluters can't pick up how annoying it is ? Are they missing a sense ? Missing a sense of consideration for others that's for sure .

I am so relieved when I travel first class on trains for work because I have never encountered this in First but experience it every time I'm in Standard. Like a pp, I suffer from misophonia and it is so torturous. I put in my own earphones and block it out for sanity but am genuinely dreading a three hour train journey next week solely due to being subjected to tinny videos blasting out of passenger phones.

It's also impossible to eat anywhere family friendly now because any restaurant or cafe with children in will have cartoons and videos playing out loud. My own kids understand never, ever to do this but virtually an entire generation are being raised to think it's totally normal. From babies watching an iPad in a high chair in a restaurant on holiday to toddlers on trains blaring out Peppa Pig to teens playing TikTok clips on rapid-fire on the bus - they are growing up with no concept that headphones are the considerate choice or even that they're an option at all. I can only see it getting worse as children born now won't know any different.

I agree that this will be a legacy of the children allowed to watch cartoons at full blast in restaurants etc. No reason to consider that anyone else might not want to hear your shite.

I disagree that it is to do with removing the earphone jack. That was 2016. 8 years is plenty enough time to get used to the idea, especially when you consider that many of the people doing this were kids then. It’s much easier to put in Bluetooth headphones that connect instantly than have cables hanging about.

What I don’t get is that we can all agree that this is annoying, yet the playing music in your garden threads are often divided.