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How Restaurants Got So Loud

theatlantic.com

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Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#21

Post by thom »

keiferski wrote: post #17
willvarfar wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a big fan of the making-libraries-loud (loud as in happy) movement, but I'm usually bringing my kids to browse the shelves and pick books to bring home, not to actually spend time there reading them. In my experience kids find quiet libraries intimidating. (Which is at odds with my own preferences, I should add, but I prioritize the kids.) What the libraries need is a quiet reading room, rather like the trains ha…

Libraries are not playgrounds. This idea that the primary functional purpose of an important space should be some kind of afterthought is rather depressing, but I guess is follows from the entertainment-centric culture we live in. The purpose of a library is to read, not to entertain your kids.

Libraries are repositories of books for people to take away. The idea that they need to provide office space for people who could just as well read at home is stupid.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#22

Post by keiferski »

probably_wrong wrote: post #19
adwhit wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars must surely be the main cause. There is an interesting phenomenon known as "shifting baseline syndrome" where we tend to compare our environment to what we recall as a child and inevitably conclude that is has gotten nosier/busier/more polluted, not realizing that environment of our childhoods were already heavily degraded. The world in which we evolved would have been almost silent, almost all of the time, apar…

I agree with cars being the problem. I only thought about that when I learned that laws were drafted to force electric cars to make noise - for a brief couple of seconds I realised how different the world would be if all cars were silent... and then I got my hopes crushed. I truly cannot picture what life would be like without car noise and light pollution.

Check out the movie Gattaca for a vision of a future world with silent electric cars.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#23

Post by pbhjpbhj »

fredley wrote: post #5

One thing that's becoming near-impossible is finding places to drink (as in pubs or bars) without piped music. This contributes significantly to noise. It's done of course so that we shout ourselves hoarse trying to have a conversation, so we buy more drinks to lubricate our throat, but even formerly quiet pubs near me have started doing it.

I think the mechanism is supposed to be that you talk less, which in turn means you drink more.

Places serving food have piped music so you finish your meal more quickly so they sell more covers; you're unlikely to sit around chatting afterwards with music playing.

They also clear plates at the earliest chance providing an enhanced social pressure to finish.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#24

Post by ainiriand »

Alreadyobsolete wrote: post #2

It's worth mentioning that the noise levels of restaurants and public spaces can also be inaccessible to those who hearing impairments and those who may be sensitive to overstimulating audio input. I can personally attest to being in busy restaurants in which my grandmother simply cannot have a full conversation with me since there's so much surrounding noise.

I can attest to that. I am deaf from my left ear and when I walk on the street I need to be on the left of any person walking with me, it is impossible to hear anything. In restaurants, pubs, bars, I have already given up and I know that I will miss most of the conversations.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#25

Post by cimmanom »

keiferski wrote: post #7

I'd love to read an analysis of how the world in general has gotten so loud. Even a few hundred years ago, the centers of massive cities like Paris, Rome, or Istanbul must have been significantly quieter, being that cars, horns, trains, speakers, boomboxes, industrial plants, airplanes and everything else that creates noise pollution didn't exist.

I don’t know. Carriages and wagons with wooden or iron-rimmed wheels rolling over cobblestones don’t seem to me like they’d be quiet.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#26

Post by keiferski »

cimmanom wrote: post #25
keiferski wrote: post #7

I'd love to read an analysis of how the world in general has gotten so loud. Even a few hundred years ago, the centers of massive cities like Paris, Rome, or Istanbul must have been significantly quieter, being that cars, horns, trains, speakers, boomboxes, industrial plants, airplanes and everything else that creates noise pollution didn't exist.

I don’t know. Carriages and wagons with wooden or iron-rimmed wheels rolling over cobblestones don’t seem to me like they’d be quiet.

I said "significantly quieter", not "quiet." Surely a carriage makes less noise than an eighteen-wheeler.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#27

Post by orloffm »

I once was at a huge car expo, and French and German halls were adjacent to each other. For some reason, all French car makers had extremely loud music at their spaces, like if they were trying to be louder than each other. It was basically impossible to be there.

The German hall (all three major makers) had complete silence inside. So this is also a cultural thing, and a pretty strong one as this happened in Moscow, and most of the workers were Russians of course.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#28

Post by rubinelli »

keiferski wrote: post #17
willvarfar wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a big fan of the making-libraries-loud (loud as in happy) movement, but I'm usually bringing my kids to browse the shelves and pick books to bring home, not to actually spend time there reading them. In my experience kids find quiet libraries intimidating. (Which is at odds with my own preferences, I should add, but I prioritize the kids.) What the libraries need is a quiet reading room, rather like the trains ha…

Libraries are not playgrounds. This idea that the primary functional purpose of an important space should be some kind of afterthought is rather depressing, but I guess is follows from the entertainment-centric culture we live in. The purpose of a library is to read, not to entertain your kids.

Kids that grow up associating libraries with fun are much more likely to want to visit them after they learn to read. Libraries are closing down because they don't have any readers.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#29

Post by eponeponepon »

thom wrote: post #21
keiferski wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Libraries are not playgrounds. This idea that the primary functional purpose of an important space should be some kind of afterthought is rather depressing, but I guess is follows from the entertainment-centric culture we live in. The purpose of a library is to read, not to entertain your kids.

Libraries are repositories of books for people to take away. The idea that they need to provide office space for people who could just as well read at home is stupid.

Good luck taking a Gutenberg bible or a Shakespeare first folio away to read quietly at home.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#30

Post by curiousGambler »

thom wrote: post #21
keiferski wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Libraries are not playgrounds. This idea that the primary functional purpose of an important space should be some kind of afterthought is rather depressing, but I guess is follows from the entertainment-centric culture we live in. The purpose of a library is to read, not to entertain your kids.

Libraries are repositories of books for people to take away. The idea that they need to provide office space for people who could just as well read at home is stupid.

Libraries find their roots in academic institutions, a context in which they are absolutely intended to be a place of study, not just a repository of books.
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