I saw this phrase in an article in the Washington Post. I had never thought of it this way. But noise, when we are subjected to it involuntarily, damages hearing and really gets on my nerves!
Noises that ought to go are:
Back up alarms on work vehicles - so ubiquitous as to be useless
Leaf blowers - pick up a rake
Loud restaurants - I want to talk to my companions
Loud music in public places - same
Loud motorcycle engines - they don't make you a cool bad boy
2 is my personal pet peeve, I think leaf blowers are awful! Plus the way people swing them around they don't seem to save much work and they pollute the environment with noise and fumes.
The other day I was trying to read in my family room and there was a really loud, persistent, obnoxious noise that sounded like a heavy duty saw maybe taking down a tree. When I went to see where it was coming from it turned out to be 3 lawn workers standing within about 5 feet of each other using a leaf blower on my neighbors back yard. When I put my hands on the window frame as I looked out it was vibrating quite a lot. We have a really big back yard and those guys were at least 200 ft away from my house. I would outlaw them if I could!
This is a huge issue in my neighborhood. We can’t sleep with the windows open in the summer because of the sirens and the motorcycles. I am not hoping to get rid of the sirens – it’s good that we have a fire station a couple of blocks away – but I would like to see some big fines imposed on the noisy motorcyclists. They are obnoxious everywhere, but on echoey city blocks at three in the morning, they’re murder.
I don’t think protecting our hearing is any more old fogey than protecting our health in other ways. Why do people think they have the right to crank up the decibels and hurt other ears?
I’m with @doschicos . There is a family in my neighborhood that has very large dogs who like to bark. Last summer they were my alarm clock - at an hour in the morning that I would have preferred to be asleep. It’s open windows season now and I hear the dogs again but this summer I will look into the noise laws in my town. I don’t want a repeat of last summer. Many of the neighbors don’t want to complain because they have dogs but the reality is that almost all of the dog barking comes from this one home.
@bookreader I love this time of year, and then again in the fall, of sleeping with the windows open without it being too hot or two cold. Love the peeper frog noise, don’t like the dog barking. I can even hear the barking with the windows closed sometimes but sound carries strangely in my area since I live at the top of a hill so not exactly sure where it is coming from but I have my guesses. Some night, I’ll get motivated to track it down outside in the middle of the night.
What I really don’t get though is that if I can hear it in my home, how can the people who own the dogs possibly stand it in the wee hours of the morning themselves?! It’s not a few barks. It’s barking and barking and barking.
Loud music and loud talkers in restaurants with high ceilings and hard surfaces that don’t absorb any sound!
At the risk of sounding like a crusty curmudgeon, I find that young people are especially loud. I’ve wondered if perhaps their hearing has been desensitized by prolonged use of in-ear headphones, thus contributing to loud talking.
I bet we were complained about as well way back when. That loud rock 'n roll music. Joking aside, I do think it is a sensitivity that increases with age. Younger, hipper restaurants, bars, and other venues like clubs do tend to be noisy. That isn’t a new phenomenon.
At some age, though, you might care less. My dad will just turn down or turn off his hearing aids when he wants some peace and quiet or doesn’t want to listen to someone.
The backup alarms on work vehicles with restricted rear visibility (e.g. cargo vans with no windows, box trucks, etc.) are not especially loud, and do serve a safety purpose.
Restaurants are often designed intentionally to be loud for various reasons.
My pet peeve when it comes to noise is those hand dryers in public restrooms. Honestly whoever invented those devices should be fired. The noise is simply over the top – just not something that the general public should be expected to absorb.
Noisy restaurants also bother me lately. We have a local restaurant where the food is really great, but I just can’t take the acoustics of their space. Not sure what it is but you literally cannot hear the person sitting across from you when they speak. H thinks it is the material that they used for their ceiling which obviously does not absorb noise well.
When I moved to the country from NYC, it was the crickets that drove me absolutely crazy. They never shut up. That was at night. In the morning it was a rooster. And the cars zipping by at 65 miles an hour. I guess it all depends on what you get used to.
I get migraines easily so I hate loud music. I don’t go places with dance music, live music (except concerts- which I go to rarely), etc. I’ve been an old person since my early teens
That said, I don’t think it’s anywhere near as harmful as secondhand smoke. I live off a main-ish road but we have lots of trees that buffer the noise. I guess we’re lucky in that our neighbors are pretty respectful with blowing and mowing hours. Loud restaurants and bars are easy to avoid. Even in my college town, there are plenty of bars where you can go to talk.
I need white noise of some sort to fall asleep. When it’s too quiet, my mind keeps me awake. My best friend is the same way. Mr R could literally sleep through a hurricane.
