Perhaps it’s because I grew up in an inevitably noisy environment with four siblings and a father who always, and I mean always, had to have the radio on in the middle of the house that I am sensitive to background noise. I can sit in a media room or an office with two hundred other people, and the ambient noise doesn’t bother me a bit. However, put me in a public place such as a restaurant where two different networks are running the same news all day and competing for my attention with the volume on high plus what passes for background music nowadays (way too loud and should be christened “foreground music”), and as mentioned once before, people rudely playing their videos nice and loud for everyone to hear, and I get irritated.
I don’t know where restaurants got this idea: the louder and different ambient noise, the better. The television noise comes from the eastern and western walls, and the music comes from above. Sometimes, you can hear the music playing at an earsplitting volume in the kitchen when the doors open and close. No, you are not creating an atmosphere. Well, actually, you are, but it’s not a good one. Memo to restaurants – and I have spoken to them about this – provide one noise source, not several.
johnberkovich.com 