Re: OT The Convent

Kate Brown <elvira@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:3vkadoLr0ApEFwnK@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

It was something that struck me very forcibly when supply teaching in
Lambeth and Southwark, and also in more affluent areas for that matter
-
there were a great many children who had quite simply never experienced
any kind of quietness at all.

I wonder if such people are actually scared of silence, like being scared
of the dark. As a 100% grumpy old man, my attempts to find somewhere I
can have a drink, or a meal, or do some shopping without being assaulted
by someone else's choice of music are getting more and more frustrating.
I simply do not understand why background music is regarded as essential
in so many public spaces.

One hears a lot about childhood obesity - is there much about deafness
in children or young adults?

I think this could be the asbestos of the 2020s. When today's teenagers
reach 40 and discover they can no longer hear I expect a mass action
lawsuit against Sony et al for selling dangerous devices to children. My
employer (the BBC) forbids me to use headphones without limiters, with
good reason. It is too easy to listen at damaging sound levels on
headphones or earphones. The people you hear on the tube (itself an
unpleasantly noisy experience) using earphones which you can hear from
across the carriage are deafening themselves, and they probably don't
even know it.

I wonder
whether the constant noise at really high levels - including levels in
clubs and cinemas that actually hurt my ears - doesn't do a lot of
damage in quite a short run.

I'm sure it does, though probably not enough to prove cause and effect.
I'm told that walking into a cinema whilst ostentatiously waving a sound
level meter around produces the desired effect, but I've never tried it.
I take earplugs to the cinema, which I only remove after the adverts and
if I can't hear the film well enough.

Sorry to rant, but you hit my hobby horse. OK, one of my hobby horses.
--
Jim <http://www.jim-easterbrook.me.uk/>
1959/1985? M B+ G+ A L I- S- P-- CH0(p) Ar++ T+ H0 Q--- Sh0
.