- Headphones, baby, headphones…
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Question: You are at a cafe or restaurant. The place has music. Someone sits down and starts to watch a movie on an iPad. The noise clashes with the music and is annoying. Is it fair to ask that person to turn the sound off on the iPad?
I faced this situation the other day at a restaurant where a guy started to watch a movie. Usually, I’ll try to endure, because sometimes it is only for a minute or two, but this guy looked to be in for the long haul. My patience was low that day so I told a staff member, sitting nearby, I planned to leave because of the noise. “He’s a customer, too,” she said. So, I left and went to Union (love the bottomless coffee), wondered if I had been reasonable, and posted the above question on Weibo. The answers:
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I would ask the person to turn the ipad down instead of turning off.
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totally
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maybe not, stand up and leave.
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Yes!
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Absolutely! It’s rude not to use headphones…especially if it’s porn
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Him being a customer does not give him the right to “harass” another customer. You did the right thing.
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Ask him politely to use earphone and wish him a nice weekend
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Yes they should. I mean people are allowed to talk but if you’re watching a movie that’s different, and shouldn’t impose on others.
- He should use headphones, that’s what they’re for.
- yes, i’ll remind that person to turn it down at least in such public place
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Ask them to use headphones.
General consensus: It is fair to ask the person to turn down the sound / use headphones. That might seem like a “no brainer“. But given the number of people watch movies / TV shows / etc at loud volumes for long periods of time, disturbing others doesn’t seem to be a concern for many in our midst. It would be best if the staff at restaurants talked to such people, especially when a person is disturbing many others customers, but that probably isn’t going to happen….
(Thanks to HailieSong, Mark_Dreyer, 喵碎碎_贝娜娜, 你迈迈的, 答案在人性, 哲后的酒学家, 钟子茵, 东直门外幸福三村, 巴尼狒猫 and 叶镜洪微博 for the comments.)
Simply shows the low manners of that person.Use Headphones or Management should advise him to leave.
I am slowly starting to realise in Beijing that there is a ‘look at me, I must be special, I have an iPad!’ attitude.. More so than I’ve noticed in other places I’ve visited..
Worse yet is your example, when it’s almost as if they think you didn’t notice them struggling to use their iPad in the subway/toilet/coffee shop, so they have to go over the top with the sound or enthusiasm playing games just so someone turns around to look at them. It annoys me so much, but I don’t bother saying anything because I figure I’d get told the same thing as you did.
@ Igor,
Sometimes it is the management making the noise!
Cheers, Boyce
@ Locksley,
Let’s just hope that chainsaws don’t get popular given that “look at me” attitude.
Cheers, Boyce