A funny thing happened on the train the other day. As I sat down on the afternoon train, on my way home, a young woman came up beside the guy sitting in front of me. She tapped him on the shoulder and said, yelling a little out loud, "Could you please turn turn the volume down!". This was followed by hand gestures pushing downward. The international symbol for 'turn the volume down'.
The guy was listening to his music device (Ipod perhaps), at a very high volume. So high, I could almost make out a little tune against the loud static noise coming out of it. He must have had the volume at a level which is sure to make him permanently deaf in a years time. It was so loud that in the silence of a stationary train, I could hear a hissing noise coming out of his ears.
He turned down the volume and apologised politely. The lady then proceeded back to hear seat which was a row behind me on the other side of the aisle.
She must have some really sensitive ears. Had the train been moving along then we probably would not have heard anything. The noise from the earphones would be drowned out by the loud roar of the train. If people started chatting in a normal tone, I would not have noticed the earphones. Even before she approached the guy, I did not notice. I guess I'm used to the buzz coming out of loud earphones, unlike some people.
By concidence, I read in the news, recently, about a clamp down on noisy commuters. People talking loudly on mobile phones (I totally agree, spare me the gory details), having loud conversations (agree, I don't want to know about him or her) and the loud ipods/mp3 player/music device (Loud?). Seriously, how loud can they be for passive listeners, if the earphones are not attached to our ears. It would be extremely loud for those listening since they want it that way. Gives the listener a feeling of being in a moving rave party just before going to work.
Must we have a library atmosphere when riding in trains. Must we have a quiet meditative atmosphere. Preapre for the work ahead. It might become so quiet one day that no one would want to speak for fear of reprisals. Commuters just blankly stare at the back of someone's head. Just sit there, quietly waiting for the train to take you to your destination, sit still like robots. Shhh....
I don't have an ipod/mp3 player/music device. I don't listen to music but I do read a little on the train. I agree that noise levels should be kept to a minimum but what is the minimum for a music devic? If someone wants to listen to music so loud that their ears bleed, I don't mind as long as mine don't. I don't think they have invented earphones loud enough for other people to hear as well as the person wearing it. The noise can be a nnoying and distracting but so is everything else around us and the beauty of it is that it makes everyday a little different. One day you have complete silence but on another day, noisy chatter or noisy earphone static.
I hate to be riding on totally silent trains everyday. The silence would be deafening.
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