Has the world become louder or me crankier?

[Allonthesametrain]

Just that really. I never used to notice everyday sounds much or they didn't bother me. Now, loud cars, motorbikes, people talking loudly annoy the hell out of me! It's probably me and decreased tolerance, valuing peace and quiet more. Really though, what is the need for souped up (illegal) vehicles to deliberately be thunderously loud? So many, almost all the time, I hate it! Xx

I’m with you. The world has got louder. Music in restaurants, people seemingly shouting rather than talking, children screaming. Even libraries are noisy now.

I know the estrogen reduction affects your ears so perhaps makes them more sensitive when older (this has happened to me)

But I was in Tesco the other day and they were playing fairly loud pop music, of a more rocky type

I thought why? Why the need for this?

Same! just noise noise noise,I think it’s also age too.

The world has definitely become louder - especially when it comes to souped up engines, and twats with their phones on speakers - I could go on and on…

Restaurants are certainly much noisoer. carpets have disappeared, they all seem to have hard flooring, and stark furnishing. So sound just bounces around. Oh! and then they try and compensate that with loud music.

Or maybe I've just absorbed Victor Medrew's personna...

Probably both! I am the same age as you and think that I am getting more noise sensitive. I travelled to Sydney this year and I noticed how bloody noise it was. But never did i think that once when I lived there previously when it is actually a pretty noisy place.

On the other hand, there is noise everywhere now that I don't think was there all the time a couple of decades ago. The world has got faster and all silence needs to be filled. Or noise turned up to get our attention.

I think it's anniversary thing - l am def more noise sensitive than l used to be

Thank you all, unfortunately I can't see what I'm typing as it's all above my screen!

The world has indeed become louder and me noticing it and become less tolerant.

On my days off hoping for some quiet time it's DIY with loud radios, souoed uo cars, motorbikes, planes flying overhead etc.

Know I sound very sensory, that's because I a. Having tinnitus so earplugs only louder it.

Playing music aloud is a disease of the new generation

It’s not even just children screaming these days. A lot of adults scream too. Drives me mad.

I think it has generally - more tech available to people - people having loud phone conversations/facetimes/watching loud tiktoks and YouTube videos etc with no consideration to other people around them, dogs absolutely everywhere.

I was in a cafe with a friend just the other day and a dog in the dog area but not too far from the dog-free seating we were in was barking it's head off, the owner was doing very little to get it to behave....a nearby baby was crashing its metal spoon onto its ceramic bowl, again with it's parent doing nothing to stop it....it was actually quite stressful for.me and I had a lot of difficulty actually having a conversation with said friend and enjoying our cup of tea together over all the noise....

I've noticed that recorded music seems to have a much louder 'base' volume in recent years. For example, if I'm listening to a band from the 1960's to 1980's in the car and then a song from the 2000's, I always need to turn the volume down to get the same volume as the previous song, if that makes sense.