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How Restaurants Got So Loud

theatlantic.com

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Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#181

Post by crooked-v »

solatic wrote: post #176
jlokier wrote: post #108

There's an ice cream and bagel place in town. In the late evening it's consistently packed with people on their laptops or reading books. One day I noticed the music was much louder than usual, and asked the staff to turn it down. I figured it was a mistake because it was normally much quieter. They told me this was the new company policy. To set the music uncomfortably loud to make people leave, after finishing thei…

You can still find places where you can be served a beverage of your choice in a comfortable chair and tranquil setting. They just tend to have membership fees.

I'm curious what places you're talking about.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#182

Post by decebalus1 »

jlokier wrote: post #108

There's an ice cream and bagel place in town. In the late evening it's consistently packed with people on their laptops or reading books. One day I noticed the music was much louder than usual, and asked the staff to turn it down. I figured it was a mistake because it was normally much quieter. They told me this was the new company policy. To set the music uncomfortably loud to make people leave, after finishing thei…

It probably won't be the most popular opinion but I'm siding with the business for this one. I never got people who use cafe bars, delis, etc.. as personal offices. I personally can't get 'in the zone' in such a public place where:

- I need to buy/consume something every X minutes

- have to overhear irrelevant stupid/mundane conversations

- people have a habit of bringing their dogs everywhere now and I'm not even going to get into how disruptive that is

- deal with the passive-aggressiveness of the employees when you spend a couple of hours there

Whenever I work from home and I need a 'public' place in order to separate home and work, I go to the local library for which I pay taxes. It's probably the only place I can walk in, not be expected to buy anything and just enjoy the silence. Other times when the weather is nice I just go the park or on a bench on the public trail and use my phone as a hotspot.

The bagel/coffee/sandwich/donut shops are businesses where people should walk in, buy something, have a date/meeting/chat and then leave. I'm probably a weirdo but again, I never got this working from a coffee shop thing.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#183

Post by ball_of_lint »

something2 wrote: post #119
jlokier wrote: post #108

There's an ice cream and bagel place in town. In the late evening it's consistently packed with people on their laptops or reading books. One day I noticed the music was much louder than usual, and asked the staff to turn it down. I figured it was a mistake because it was normally much quieter. They told me this was the new company policy. To set the music uncomfortably loud to make people leave, after finishing thei…

Does wearing noise-cancelling headphones actually protect your ears? My understanding of noise-cancelling(at least the active kind) is that it would play the noise you would normally hear but in a mirrored fashion to dampen out the noise you'd hear. I'm just wondering if that would protect your ears, do as much harm, or double it.

A good fraction of noise canceling for some over-ear headphones is the cups that go over your ear. Having that barrier can be a significant sound damper on its own.

Also, whatshisface is exactly correct.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#184

Post by flying_kangaroo »

jtreminio wrote: post #145
bluGill wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also means I can't understand my wife when she speaks. It is bad enough at home with my kids yelling at the top of their lungs (any ideas on how to break them of this?), when we go out it is impossible.

Use a water spray bottle - No one, including [children], like to be squirted with water, so you can try a quick spritz at your [child] if they are somewhere or doing something they shouldn't be.

This reads like advice for how to train a cat and I would feel kinda weird doing it to a child. Is this actually effective?

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#185

Post by SilasX »

crooked-v wrote: post #181
solatic wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still find places where you can be served a beverage of your choice in a comfortable chair and tranquil setting. They just tend to have membership fees.

I'm curious what places you're talking about.

Not sure if it's exactly what the parent meant, but, at Workshop Cafe in SF, you just pay to use a seat per hour and otherwise don't have to buy anything, so there's no incentive to get you out the door and free up the spot.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#186

Post by [deleted] »

Spivak wrote: post #163
err4nt wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny how obvious some people make it that they don't want business. I don't really care about power plugs or wifi when I visit a café (my battery running out is a great motivator + natural time limit, I can tether to my phone for internet) but I always pay close attention to how a new café is outfitted. Some cafés that genuinely want your business make plugs available to the customers, some will even go as far…

I think this is a very uncharitable view of the situation. Some coffee shops don't want to pivot into coworking spaces and that's okay. Personally I think it's a match made in heaven since a day pass at a nice coworking space is around $10 which is like two drinks but I get that some businesses would prefer to just sell coffee.

[deleted]

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#187

Post by everybodyknows »

mmartinson wrote: post #77
watt wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If children grow up associating libraries with a place that is not fun, support for libraries will die after that generation. The Berlin city libraries absolutely have spaces for children to play (loudly) and also make point of events with readings for children, and so on. A generation will grow up associating libraries as part of their life.

I grew up thinking libraries were not fun. I am an adult. I support them.

I grew up thinking they were a place for thoughtful reading and writing, scholarship.

And that when a society devalues scholarship, it's on its way to the condition of, say, Venezuela.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#188

Post by magic_beans »

apacheCamel wrote: post #165
erikpukinskis wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where have you seen the reading hate trend?

I should have made it more clear that it was in my own personal experience. Many of the kids from my highschool or even as late as the people I am still in contact with from college. Many are astonished I own a bookshelf full of books and actually read from it. I am pretty sure there is no real relation here, but I would like to compare it to how the same set of people feel about math. They have an assumption that it…

God that's awful. Where are you from?

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#189

Post by ajb »

JohnBooty wrote: post #68
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.

Yeah, my hearing's not the best and I really just cannot hear what people are saying half of the time. It's like... everybody's struggling to hear each other, but I really cannot hear. I just can't do those kinds of spaces, at least not if I want to have a conversation.

I can't hear in such places without these: https://www.etymotic.com/consumer/hearing-protection/er20xs-... They don't improve the signal, obviously, but your ears just don't get tired in the same way, so you can make out what people are saying - just about.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#190

Post by NotAnEconomist »

decebalus1 wrote: post #182
jlokier wrote: post #108

There's an ice cream and bagel place in town. In the late evening it's consistently packed with people on their laptops or reading books. One day I noticed the music was much louder than usual, and asked the staff to turn it down. I figured it was a mistake because it was normally much quieter. They told me this was the new company policy. To set the music uncomfortably loud to make people leave, after finishing thei…

It probably won't be the most popular opinion but I'm siding with the business for this one. I never got people who use cafe bars, delis, etc.. as personal offices. I personally can't get 'in the zone' in such a public place where: - I need to buy/consume something every X minutes - have to overhear irrelevant stupid/mundane conversations - people have a habit of bringing their dogs everywhere now and I'm not even go…

> I never got this working from a coffee shop thing.

This is an old tradition.

Cafes, bars, tea houses, etc have served as social hubs and placed to read or work on documents (now computers) for literally thousands of years, everywhere on the planet. There's simply a social need for a space like that, because it's a more efficient usage of space to have people work on a revolving basis in a shared space than everyone have a private space of their own or not be able to work.

It's only with the modern invention of corporate coffee shops that misvalue social fabric that we see the churn happening. (PS -- those corporate stores are wrong about the short term boost from churn improving their long term fortunes, at least from what I've heard from the big ones.)

I also find it interesting you approve of one "office-like" usage -- having a chat or meeting -- but disapprove of another -- working on documents.

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