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Headphones Everywhere

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Re: Headphones Everywhere

#51

Post by return0 »

sevenless wrote: post #50
return0 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have all sorts of regulations about public spaces (including the inability to hang around naked). Public spaces are not "do whatever" spaces. Headphones however do not hinder identity to the point of making communication impossible. I suppose people hanging around with VR goggles will. Also, you omitted the primary reason: "face-coverings prevent the clear identification of a person"

Why do you think that's the primary reason? Allowing communication is a reason that was put forward, and the ECHR's quote implies it's the reason they accepted the ban. Anyway, as I said to someone else, sunglasses and beards are not banned. It's also questionable whether the government has any reasonable right to demand that you are clearly identifiable in public. Should everyone wear license plates? Identifying som…

Because identifying someone is a prerequisite for "communication".

> It's also questionable whether the government has any reasonable right to demand that you are clearly identifiable in public

If the police is looking for you, it makes sense that they would discourage concealment en masse.

Re: Headphones Everywhere

#52

Post by teekert »

legooolas wrote: post #32
teekert wrote: post #10

I listen to podcasts usually, makes my bike commute of 25 min seem to go much faster while I'm listening to No Agenda or the Linux Action Show. I do notice though that whenever I take them off, usually because I already have a head full of thoughts, there is a soothing effect. I think the constant flow of information is nice as a distraction but makes one much less mindful of other things. The brain does not seem to…

Personally I prefer to be able to hear cars and people when I'm cycling, so that I'm less likely to hit anything or be run over. Do you not feel it makes you more likely to have an accident?

Well we do bike mostly on biking lanes here in the Netherlands (no chance of contact with a car) and we have a very biking oriented culture in general. Also here the cars are guilty (car driver can claim the damage with the bikers insurance afterwards though) unless proven that they had no responsibility what so ever (bikers and pedestrian are so called "weaker traffic participants"). It may make car drivers more cautious, or perhaps the fact that almost everybody is on a bike at some point makes them more careful. Also, on roundabouts (there are a quite some) bikes always have priority as well. In any case, I have never heard of any accidents. It is known though that here, when the schools start after a holiday there is an increase in accidents, this is probably related to car drivers needing to become used again of the high amount of bikers on the road.

Here is a nice example of a typical rush hour, the red lane is only for bikes, of course everybody is very careful at intersections :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AbPav5E5M (by the way the bus also has it's own lane in this example, and everybody knows: bus drivers don't mess around.)

Re: Headphones Everywhere

#54

Post by castis »

sevenless wrote: post #43
glenndebacker wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Belgium the only reason full-face burkas and niqabs are outlawed is because you need to be recognisable. There isn't a burka prohibition but rather one against clothes/masks/... in general that can make it difficult to identify somebody. The only exception is when it's carnival ergo the reason why it's called the carnival law here. And I assume that is also the case in most European countries. When you are wearing…

I assume that sunglasses and beards are not banned.

Sunglasses and beards do not obscure your entire face to the point where you are unrecognizable whereas a burka obscures all but your eyes. Surely you can see the difference?

Re: Headphones Everywhere

#55

Post by carlob »

coldpie wrote: post #15

> Is the ubiquity of headphones just another emblem of catastrophic social decline, edging us even deeper into narcissism and unsociability? No. * closes tab

Maybe you should have kept reading, you'd have found out the author agrees with you

Re: Headphones Everywhere

#56

Post by ungzd »

In Russia, lots of people used headphones about 5 years ago. Now I see people with headphones very rarely. Also, I think interest to music is in decline here.

Re: Headphones Everywhere

#57

Post by lloeki »

Tehnix wrote: post #31
sevenless wrote: post #28

A reason that some European countries use in recent laws that ban women from wearing full-face burkas/niqabs, is it stops the wearers interacting/communicating with others. The same logic implies we should ban public wear of headphones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ban_on_face_covering "The key argument supporting this proposal is that face-coverings ... [are] a social hindrance within a society which relies…

>as it stops the wearers interacting with others Are you sure that's the reason? I'd imagine it would have something to do with the laws (at least here in Denmark) around it being illegal to be fully masked.

You got it reversed, this is the justification that has been put forward for the law to come into existence in France.

The basic idea is that non-verbal face-to-face communication is culturally expected as a very basic and fundamental part of our social interactions, however inconsequential they seem. An example: bump into someone on the bus, and you'll instantly look at their face to know if they're hurt or annoyed or sorry or vindictive without a word, and can proceed on with appropriate verbal communication. In other cultures maybe arm language suffices but in a European one it creates unease at best not to see the other's full face.

This is basically why even ill people don't wear masks around here (when it would really help not spreading diseases like flu) which is, I hear, basically a given in Asian cultures.

The French government decided to make a statement about it and declared that masking your face is illegal (barring a couple exceptions including medical reasons, safety, and cultural†† events) for cultural and security† reasons.

† Obviously terrorists vet in favor of RFC3514 and choose to wear masks in public and so everyone is now safer what you didn't think of the children did you?

†† Otherwise that would make for an interesting conundrum

Re: Headphones Everywhere

#58

Post by jannotti »

carlob wrote: post #55
coldpie wrote: post #15

> Is the ubiquity of headphones just another emblem of catastrophic social decline, edging us even deeper into narcissism and unsociability? No. * closes tab

Maybe you should have kept reading, you'd have found out the author agrees with you

It still wouldn't have been worth reading though. If an article uses a click-baity question, but acknowledges that its premise is a dumb one that people have used for years, that doesn't forgive it and suddenly make it a worthwhile article.

(Yes, I did read it, and wish I had closed it sooner.)

Re: Headphones Everywhere

#59

Post by diydsp »

Initial comments on this article indicate it elicited a persecuted response: Commenters are defending their use of headphones. This was perhaps due to the tone of the article (phrases like "catastrophic social decline" don't help...) and/or the tone of media in general which treats every topic as life and death.

The existence of all the headphones though raises more interesting questions that are fun and interesting to think about in a sci-fi way than "is it acceptable for you to react in this way?"

There are hints of it in the article, but they don't come through well. The key questions are mostly of curiosity. First, there is simply "what are people listening to?" Is it always music, what kinds of podcasts, meditations, lectures, spy recordings?

I am particularly interested in shared experiences via headphones. It is okay in my book to not want to hear unwanted machine and person noise. Now what are the creative possibilities for making, e.g. mini groups of shared listening? In a sense, we are all sharing the same podcast, albeit time-shifted. What about group music-composing on subway trains? What about several people on the same bus or walking path to listening to the same thing together at the same time? What about historical tours, etc. This could be fun. And having all these headphones around might actually help it happen.

Re: Headphones Everywhere

#60

Post by EdiX »

Least interesting thing I have read this year. I'm starting to think that use of the word 'performative' is a dead giveaway for pointless navel-gazing.
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