I swear to god, please please please do not blast your fucking music, even if it is rad like ratm, on the walking trail. No one likes it and it makes you look like an asshole and I have to glare at you instead of giving you a friendly wave.
Hiked up to a ridge today. Guy up there smoking and playing a radio. Ugh.
Man, my brother is the worst for this. Has multiple pairs of headphones, usually at least one on his person, and STILL will blast his Instagram reel on speaker as if everyone around him wants to hear his doomscrolling and brainrot memes
I really wish people were more interested in open format ear buds and bone conductors. They are the perfect blend between personalized notifications, background music and being able to hear what’s going on around you as well as so much more comfortable than having your ear holes plugged up. I wear mine all day long sometimes and forget I’m even wearing them.
Got any links or recommendations?
https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/best-open-ear-earbuds-headphones
Think new Sony links are coming out.
My favorite are bose open but the price point is inflated a bit.
€240 for the Bose ones isn’t too bad. I know they’re inflated a bit but the quality is definitely top end
Sony stuff tends to be good but lacks physical buttons, really fucking annoying for accidental button pushes
I have both current Linkbuds. I love the concept of the first one but they are uncomfortable for me no matter how I wear them (unless I damn near have them hanging out of my ear, but then they sound bad and fall out easily). The S model is one of my favorite earbuds I own. Super small and light with great sound and fantastic ANC and passthrough. Not quite the same as a truly open earbud though. I want to try the BOSE clip on one’s, but like you said they are pricy.
I mean, the budget option there is still a lot of money, I can see why it’s still niche, also seems it would hurt if you use glasses?
Probably depends on which model and your glasses. Link buds not an issue at all. Bose open not an issue with glasses for majority at least
Just like drug addicts, these people are addicted to dopamine and they will do anything to get it even if it makes everyone else uncomfortable
I think TikTok format video players are straight up drugs. It’s a real physical addiction which even has withdrawal symptoms
They are so appealing, I do avoid them but it’s just sad to watch everyone else become a victim of those
Physical addiction is a stretch
Why?
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I think they call that chemical addiction or physical dependence?
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Are you like trying to be condescending lmfao
The terms “addiction” and “dependence” can seem similar, but they are different. Dependence occurs when the body physically relies on a drug. Addiction involves changes in behavior. A person with an addiction has difficulty not using substances or doing rewarding activities, even if it is harming them.
The difference between addiction and dependence can be difficult to understand. Some organizations have different definitions, use the words interchangeably or even abandon both terms altogether. (Substance use disorder, or SUD, is a preferred term in the scientific community.) Because of this lack of consistency, some ground rules can help differentiate between the two terms.
When people use the term “dependence,” they are usually referring to a physical dependence on a substance. Dependence is characterized by the symptoms of tolerance and withdrawal. While it is possible to have a physical dependence without being addicted, addiction is usually right around the corner.
https://www.addictioncenter.com/addiction/addiction-vs-dependence/
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okay, but what if it’s a very important porn video? /s
You stream it to the nearest screen. Don’t keep that confined to your phone alone.
I used to judge people for going about their daily lives with headphones on (like shopping) as being antisocial. In the last few years, I’ve come to realize they were just quicker to realize how annoying our society is and I’m increasingly likely to join them.
Recently I went to a mall and visited all the department stores. One of them had a guy playing a piano live and my first thought was “how quaint”. Then, as I sat and waited for my wife to try things on it struck me that I wasn’t hearing horrible music played over speakers - the piano was really nice. Why can’t places go back to playing relaxing music like that (even recorded)?
Theres a restaurant I go to which plays music that youd expect from a fallout game. The old folks like it cause nostalgia but a couple other folks on the younger end have said something along the lines of “I heard this in Fallout New Vegas” its great, also apparently Big Iron played once and a bunch of old bastards and younger guys sung along to it. I wish I was there for it.
IMO, there’s two main factors at play. First, the speakers in most stores suck. They have to buy them at volume (quantity, not loudness), and install them everywhere. The primary reason they have them is for paging, so they can make announcements and request that people go places. Music just gives the speakers something to do while not doing announcements.
Due to the amount of speakers they buy, and their primary purpose being for announcements, they don’t exactly buy high quality speakers. If the store has existed for a long time (maybe 10+ years), then it’s likely they’re analog, so the quality is also affected by the amps they’re using, and the cables, etc.
As long as the system can still do paging/announcements without issue, the business really doesn’t have any reason to spend money on upgrading it.
For the most part, most companies have connected these to some kind of satellite radio or music streaming system (like Spotify, but more business centric). It’s just plugged into the ancient sound amps for the analog system, often by someone who isn’t an audio expert, so levels are often all over the place, sometimes to loud and blown out, other times too quiet and details in the music are too quiet to be heard.
As long as the speakers still perform the announcements/paging that the company requires, they don’t care if the music sounds bad.
There’s a lot more to say on it for contributing factors, but the main drivers for it are not to play music. With the shift to digital and everything needing to update their music providing device, coupled with untrained people doing the connections for the new music solution to an ancient speaker system, it’s unsurprising that it sounds like garbage.
Great points on the horrible quality of sound in these places. I was referring more to the selection of music, but playing it at low quality certainly makes it worse. My kids joke that the grocery store is where old pop songs go to die.
Well, if the comparison is between a live instrument and the terrible speakers in the building, unless that instrument is not tuned, damaged, or otherwise not working correctly, the instrument will sound significantly better than anything else you could possibly subject your ears to.
The music selection is largely corporate/business picking something that’s very safe to play, so it’s usually very boring music.
Drag shops with phonics in. Drag has autism and doesn’t need to hear 50 people’s conversations and bad pop music just to have a migraine when drag gets home. Drag does not think the grocery store is a place for social interaction anyway.
I’m definitely in agreement now, it just took me a bit longer to get over the shift in social norms.
Maybe don’t walk around the store while on facetime with the volume on full blast while you’re at it.
But this argument can’t wait until I go home!!!
Literally my school bus, there’s like 50 students inside at any given time, more than half of them blast tiktoks, shorts, reels or other bullshit, the rest are either yelling and acting macho, or really wanna gtfo of that bus.
Well thanks for the inside intel, because I briefly would consider it when I saw the local busses’ “Now hiring drivers!” stickers but then imagined this is what would make it pretty much hell every day. :D
I’d say if you want to be thanked a lot per day, being a driver is for you, although I’d rather drive the public buses than the monstrosity of a school bus
Literally had a dude do this when the VP debate was on, and he was all cheering and pumping his fist soyboying about JD Vance
Did you punch him in the face? I that would hold up in court.
no I told him to shut up and he told me I was being immature and told me to shut up and I told him that he was the one who was disrupting things that needed to leave and half of the store tried to take his side and say hey this is America buddy he can listen to whatever he wants to and I was telling them that he should get some headphones for his Nazi propaganda and then the guy eventually fucked off muttering under his breath and the managers knew that I was cool so I sat back down and chilled
it wasn’t a bus it was a waiting area in a pharmacy but it’s basically the same principle
Obnoxious dickheads gonna be obnoxious
If you have enough money to afford a modern cellphone, you can pay $20 for crappy bluetooth headphones like the rest of us. It’s very interesting that it’s never an otherwise very respectful and thoughtful individual whose playing their music loudly in a public space, there’s always one or two other markers letting you know they’re just always an asshole.
Mute with subtitles is fine
[Music] [Applause]This is the way.
Then there is this guy that has his headphones so loud that I can hear what he listens to from 5 rows away
I was on an airplane one time when someone was doing that. The flight attendant heard it and said something like, “Oh no, that’s not okay,” then figured out who it was and had them turn it down. No one even asked - she just did it. Excellent.
I automatically hate you very much if you do this
