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How Restaurants Got So Loud

theatlantic.com

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Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#291

Post by brokenmachine »

eponeponepon wrote: post #60
thom wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, apologies if I think kids being encouraged to go to libraries is more important than grown ups who can go _anywhere_ refusing to finding somewhere to read.

What kids should be encouraged to do is not merely attend a library as if simply being there is an end in itself, but to learn to appreciate and enjoy quiet, reflective learning.

Upvoted.

This is precisely what I have been thinking while reading all these comments, but unable to express so succintly.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#292

Post by brokenmachine »

ghaff wrote: post #136
tapland wrote: post #6

Locally (Stockholm, Sweden) the head of the city libraries has made a statement of battling the 'quietness norm' in libraries. Most of them now have playgrounds, one in Kista (where I happened to live at the time) won awards for best library in the world and in Sweden the same year. It was completely unusable for what me and my fiance usually do at the library. The study rooms had the ventilation system for the build…

The architectural style and decorations are part of the problem as the article says. An equally big one though is, as you say, the apparent need to have blaring music, TVs, etc. just about every place. I was just at an event a month or so ago that had a DJ in the exhibit hall blasting music at a volume that was actively preventing people from having easy conversations. Which is sort of the purpose of being there. Not…

>Even when I'm eating by myself, I still find the music in some restaurants both annoyingly loud and not what I would consider pleasant background music for a meal.

This is by design to get you out of there quickly to free a spot for another paying customer.

I vote with my wallet and suggest you do too.

If a restaurant has music I don't like, which seems to be a trend nowadays, I get the message that they don't want me to be there and leave immediately.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#293

Post by brokenmachine »

Symbiote wrote: post #110
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…

Some visitors to Copenhagen remark that it's surprisingly quiet for a capital city. Others say it "feels boring", which I think is partly because they associate a noisy city centre (e.g. London or Paris) with fun. There are far fewer cars in the city centre than most cities the size of Copenhagen; enough roads are restricted to people on foot or bicycles that relatively few people try and drive to, from or through it…

Your comment has just added Copenhagen to my list of "must-visit" cities.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#294

Post by brokenmachine »

blhack wrote: post #35
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…

How much time have you spent in the woods? It's definitly far, far from quiet. At least where I grew up. Maybe in the dead of the night, but here in the middle of the city, on a Main Street, it is also so quiet in my room that I can hear my la croix fizzing from 8 feet away.

There's lots of different sounds to hear, but on a decibel level it must be quiet in the woods I think.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#295

Post by brokenmachine »

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.

Most of the noise from cars is from the tyres.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#296

Post by brokenmachine »

blhack wrote: post #250
Ancalagon wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is this? Im in Phoenix as well and would like to check it out!

Dick's hideaway on 16th street and Bethany Home. Some of the best food I've ever had! Really lovely place but...just why on earth they have TVs in there? It just doesn't fit at all with the rest of the fantastic ambiance.

You could ask if they'll turn it off.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#297

Post by brokenmachine »

leetcrew wrote: post #166
School-Cotton wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow other cultures (IME: China, many parts of Europe, Korea) do fine with people being expected to flag down wait staff when they want to talk to them.

interrupt and polling based models each have their own pros and cons. neither is inherently better than the other.

As per the name, only one of those models actually interrupts your meal though. Quite often it's literally as I'm chewing the first bite. So by those metrics, the most irritating waiters would have the best times.

My pet hate is when I'm asked questions while I'm actually eating and I'm expected to answer with a mouth full of food.

I always dreamed of a restaurant that has call buttons on the table, like in a plane or hospital.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#298

Post by brokenmachine »

sequoia wrote: post #236
jtreminio wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Respectfully, this advice is absolutely idiotic. If your toddler pees their pants, do you rub their face in it too? I'm not a proponent of treating children identically to adults, but children should still be afforded some aspects of human dignity. Spraying them with a water bottle like a malfeasant feline is not a polite way to treat anyone, regardless of age. If you do this to your child, you are teaching them that…

I don't have kids. I wish I lived in a world where I could spray other people's children when they acted like a malfeasant feline.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#299

Post by bistro »

throwaway675309 wrote: post #282
lotsofpulp wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>dogs are bundles of joy and love, and make (most) people happy. I'm at the point where I would pay extra for businesses and facilities that didn't allow animals. The service animal law is also being used fraudulently by so many people, I just assume it unless I can see the person is blind.

I'd prefer the opposite, businesses that don't allow children. Why can't every place be a bar and/or strip joint?

Come to Seattle. Dogs freaking everywhere. And an unusually high number of restaurants that don't allow children.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#300

Post by cr0sh »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #146
apacheCamel wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like this is a very negative way to view the situation. Libraries should totally be "fun". It should be "fun" to go and find a book that you enjoy or just spend time reading in an area dedicated to the love of books. It shouldn't be a place to just drop the kids off and leave, but it should be a place kids want to go. Reading can be fun and I almost feel like it is a "trendy thing" of my generation (Millennial…

Where have you seen the reading hate trend?

I don't know if it's necessarily "hate" per-se, but go read one or more forums on something like Reddit.

Depending on the forum, and the size of the comments, you'll sometimes see something like:

TL;DR

"too long; didn't read"

In some cases, you'll see a post where there will be a "TL;DR" section summarizing the "long form" version just below it.

The funny thing is, the "long form" might only be a paragraph or two, but apparently for a certain segment of the population who read forums, even that much information is "TL;DR" worthy.

These people don't want to read anything that won't fit inside a tweet. I'd dare say that for some, even 280 characters is just too much text to digest.

It leaves no room for thoughtful discourse. It leaves no room for intelligent debate and conversation.

I see such brush-offs of conversation online, and couple it with what I have heard of some people who eschew being alone; who need noise (particularly people around them talking with each other) so that they don't have to listen to their own thoughts - and it makes me shudder to think to what end our society will arrive at.

In a way, we are already witnessing its decline.

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