Will The Whole World Please Be Quiet

Post Reply New Topic

I live in a city. It's a bit of a nightmare. Actually I've lived in the city my whole life, only I've been to countrysides and rural areas for holidays, so I have a basis of comparison. Yes, I know the sensation, especially for city-people, is really to go to rural areas for holidays to get away; this isn't extraordinary to me. It's just that I see EVERYTHING. I see which direction the wind is blowing by the way the wind lifts womens' hair and blows up the leaves. I see stray cats who wander around, I see the streaking meteors that morning sun makes in the hoods of cars zooming by. In short, what's background to most people is foreground to me.

A few years ago I found that listening on headphones helps - the headphones makes a shield between you and the world. This is me, looking out through these eyes. The rest of the world is on the other side. I still see everything, but at least I get to choose what I hear - the headphones muffle very well. As a result, I'm almost perpetually on my headphones, even at work, and I just got scolded today for listening on my headphones while working. I got so jittery I ripped my stress ball apart, because I honestly don't know what's wrong with that. There are others at work who listen to music too - tinny radios with the volume down really low and earphones. Is social appropriateness a question of the electrical appliance being used?

Well, I can't very well tell people that if I don't listen on my headphones, I'll HEAR everything as well - and I do, every telephone conversation, every time the printer starts chugging and burping out sheets - I can tell, by hearing, which people have that habit of pressing the return key on their keyboard, or right-clicking the "ok" button on their mouse extra hard, you know that habit, as if applying additional pressure to the hardware will somehow pronounce the act of comfirming something on the screen. They'll just think I'm being rude; in my boss's words: "this is work, not home". I honestly can't see reasoning behind that. If I were at home, I wouldn't bother with earphones, I'd just play music on my speakers...?

I actually live in a rural area and have the same problem.

The only advice I could give you about work is to bring it up to your boss and use others' use of radios as an example as to why it should be allowed. (S)He probably thinks it impairs you connection with the outside world (ignoring the fact that it technically does) and the ability of others to communicate with you if necessary. If that is the case you could possibly prove to him/her that you actually can hear when people address you, possibly by holding a conversation while listening to your music at the normal volume.

On a side note, you've made my new facebook status