Casual Conversation

I was home when my house was broken into. I can no longer stand complete silence. I need to know what's going on around me. The idea of being lost in game/movie/show and having someone walk up on me without me knowing, completely terrifies me.

You're falsely assuming that everyone has to deal with the same emotional control issues as you do.

You j...
BARK BARK
You just d...
BARK BARK BARK
You just deal w...
BARK BARK BAHOOO BAHOOOOOOOO
SSSSHHHHHHT!
[silence reigns in my realm again]

Anyway. I just deal with it, eventually learning how to mentally filter it. The one major exception is the neighbour's dog, goddammit I hate her owner, the dog keeps barking and howling because she's bloody bored, can't anyone take her to a walk?

You probably "unlearned" it from using the noise cancelling headphones.

I never use noise canceling, and I very rarely have earbuds on. I just ignore the noise. I feel like it is mostly a "you get used to it" thing.

But also, music is not something important to me.

It was quieter in a lot of ways. Or, I guess more specifically to my issues, there weren't likely as many conflicting sounds playing at once. You might get some asshole with a boombox on the bus or whatever, but that was rare. I also spent most of my time until uni in the countryside (and moved rural again last year).

I don know if I would have survived phones with my sanity in tact. I guess Gameboys were a thing at some point in my youth (and gamegear and game-and-watch before that), but most people were not playing them with volume in social situations. Hell I still remember when using a cellphone in public was considered dickish if you didn't excuse yourself to outside or something.

My uncle has always been "a bit unique". He won't talk if there are more than two people around and he would still greatly prefer being out in the garage or in the fields on his own. I suspect if he were growing up today he'd be wearing noise-cancelling all waking hours and checking so many boxes for an autism diagnosis.

The device playing sound didn't use to arbitrarily limit how high you could set the volume so you would just make it louder and damage your hearing 🤷‍♂️

I think i can survive minor daily life inconveniences such as listening to other people

Sixteen other responses and nobody has said earplugs so far.

We used earplugs. They were uncomfortable and they sucked but it was something.

Personally, I was just stressed out all the time.

Why do you think violent crime is on the down slope?

I had to go in without mine one day and immediately on the tram there was a guy making a lengthy call on the speakerphone and a sixty year old woman doing the Tiktoks with sound on.

• earplugs. I still use them to this day. No battery required; real good noise reduction. I use them to isolate myself from the noise of the streets while I'm writing at home (a busy street, in a large city).
• There was kinda less noise too. I mean, there was traffic roaring in the streets, people being loud, and music playing like today. But seldom people owned one of those over amplified sound system that could blast music through walls, or I don't know how much powerful car music that we can hear way before the car is in the street and long after she have passed.
• People also were not constantly talking to their hands on the streets (o be watching a movie or listen to some music), while ignoring everyone around them (polite version of what it really is: you can go all fuck yourself, I want to listen to whatever I want as loud as I want the hell with all of you). I've also notice more and more people (of all ages) using the loudpseaker to have actual phone conversation on the street or even in public transit, like if they were all alone. Back then, a lot more people actually talked to one another or they were silent. People also worried a lot more about disturbing their neighborhood (probably because neighbors used to talk to one another more too).

Nowadays, I see a lot of young people wearing noise canceling headsets on the streets and I do wonder if the solution to more noise is really to add even more noise, just to pretend it's cancelling it? Shouldn't we try to make less noise to begin with?

And what about the health risks for their hearing? I mean, I have no idea how those works, but isn't white noise more noise?

Tinnitus means noise cancelling on its own just makes the whine louder

Enough background noise and it kinda disappears

Cousin, I think you have misophonia.

But also, the world used to be a lot less loud. Ubiquitous noice pollution didn't kick off until the Industrial Revolution and especially the advent of the automobile.

You learn to tune it out.

most people dont prioritize audio to the point of homicide

Are you my wife?

Exposure therapy > blocking reality, IMO. But I'm an ADHD enjoyer, not autistic, and I understand it's not as easy for others.

Idk I used headphones? Still don't understand what the noise cancelling is for, good fitting ear tips and IEMs or closed-back over-ear headphones with good form fitting pads do the trick just as well?

I think it’s just called being alive

Active noise cancellation does better on low-frequency sound. Passive stuff, like more sound absorbing material, and a thicker, hard shell does better with high-frequency sound. So they aren't really perfect drop-in replacements for each other, more complement each other...but they do do some of the same job.

One day, I hope that there'll be something like those 3M Peltor sound protector things

which have very good passive sound isolation

with good ANC on them (3M did apparently go out and do ANC on a Peltor ear protector, but I understand that the ANC there isn't very good).

I have never used noise cancelling and it's never been an issue? What's the problem, just turn it up