Where have all the headphones gone on public transport? The noise is eating into my soul | Adrian Chiles
Just one antisocial fellow traveller can ruin a journey. Is it a giant two-fingered gesture to the rest of the world?Some time in the early years of the last decade, a friend and I travelled by train from London to Barcelona, where we would be covering a football match for work. We had a very nice day, playing Scrabble and drinking train wine as we sped south. The only problem was that a kid near us, not 10 years old, was watching a cartoon or playing a game on an iPad without the benefit of headphones. The sound wasn’t so much loud as persistent. Slowly but surely it drilled its way into our skulls and started to eat into our souls. I shot the family a couple of glances but got a look back which managed to communicate two things. Firstly that they were sorry. Secondly that if they took the iPad off the kid, we’d all be sorry. So, on he went. And an otherwise perfectly pleasurable journey started to drag.Then I had an idea. I got my headphones out of my bag, caught the mother’s eye, and handed them over. After a bit of faff they were connected to the iPad, the wretched noise ceased and I got a round of applause from men, women and children of many nations. I relate this story even though I never think it’s a good look to be the hero of your own anecdotes. My excuse is that the incident reminds me of how rare such behaviour was back then. Yes, people were known to yak away too loudly on their phones, but whoever they were talking at remained a stranger to us. And if anyone was watching or listening to something, they’d be using headphones. True, a bit of tinny noise would occasionally leak out, which was annoying, but that was about as bad as things got.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Just one antisocial fellow traveller can ruin a journey. Is it a giant two-fingered gesture to the rest of the world?
Some time in the early years of the last decade, a friend and I travelled by train from London to Barcelona, where we would be covering a football match for work. We had a very nice day, playing Scrabble and drinking train wine as we sped south. The only problem was that a kid near us, not 10 years old, was watching a cartoon or playing a game on an iPad without the benefit of headphones. The sound wasn’t so much loud as persistent. Slowly but surely it drilled its way into our skulls and started to eat into our souls. I shot the family a couple of glances but got a look back which managed to communicate two things. Firstly that they were sorry. Secondly that if they took the iPad off the kid, we’d all be sorry. So, on he went. And an otherwise perfectly pleasurable journey started to drag.
Then I had an idea. I got my headphones out of my bag, caught the mother’s eye, and handed them over. After a bit of faff they were connected to the iPad, the wretched noise ceased and I got a round of applause from men, women and children of many nations. I relate this story even though I never think it’s a good look to be the hero of your own anecdotes. My excuse is that the incident reminds me of how rare such behaviour was back then. Yes, people were known to yak away too loudly on their phones, but whoever they were talking at remained a stranger to us. And if anyone was watching or listening to something, they’d be using headphones. True, a bit of tinny noise would occasionally leak out, which was annoying, but that was about as bad as things got.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
