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[–] 13 points 3 days ago* (9 children)

How funny, that's how people who have to habitually tell you to take them out feel as well!

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  • [–] -1 points 3 days ago (7 children)

    I mean, depending on the situation, but if I'm wearing headphones then clearly I'm listening to something and probably enjoying it. Whatever you want to tell me better be important (it probably isn't). It's on the same level as talking to people who read books because "they're not doing anything" and it's infuriating

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  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago (6 children)

    You sound like the type of person op was talking about.

    I can't stand the new fad of everyone wearing headphones all the time. Opinion, the toll it's taking on our collective ability to interact with each other and grow at humans is staggering.

    I literally just left my friends house, and I was trying to engage with their teenager. Normally we get along just fine. This time they were responding, technically, but distant. Then I noticed the earbud, and saw the tablet playing a YouTube video.

    I didn't call them out, I'm not a jerk. But I would never ever do that to someone I was sitting in a living room with, while they were trying to talk to me. I don't care who it is.

    People do it everywhere though, all day. Groups of people, all friends, all walking together somewhere, all wearing headphones and earbuds listening to their own stuff. It's wild.

    You do you. And maybe it's the "new normal", I'm no social scientist. But it definitely never used to be that way, and with the way we're finding out social media is cooking our brains, I won't be surprised to read about this phenomenon in a decade or two, decrying the practice.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 hours ago (1 child)

    i'll stop wearing my noise cancelling headphones when people stop driving cars, until then i need them to not suffer from the constant grating noise that gives me a fucking migraine.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 hours ago

    Well obviously that's a bit of a different situation. People do what they gotta do.

    I'm talking about the trend at large, everyone's doing it, especially the children, and in my opinion it's part of the problem with them losing the ability to interact socially with each other and the world at large.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago* (3 children)

    I literally just left my friends house, and I was trying to engage with their teenager. Normally we get along just fine. This time they were responding, technically, but distant. Then I noticed the earbud, and saw the tablet playing a YouTube video.

    Has it occured to you that perhaps they did not want to interact with you.

    I don't wanna sound like a jerk, but you don't have a right to interact with someone. There are times I don't want to be interacted with, and that is okay.

    This is something I noticed especially among older generations, that they don't really care whether their communication partner wants to communicate as well. It's also why I despise getting a phone call: you're intruding into my day and want me to interact with you. Send a message, unless it is an emergency.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago (2 children)

    As with all things in life, there needs to be balance. They have an amount of social anxiety, but it's been getting better over the last year, as myself and other friends in our group have been taking an interest in them.

    Sometimes you need to press the issue a little. It's not socially acceptable to do what they're doing. If they went to public school they might've learned better by now. If you don't gently motivate a child to grow, they never will.

    Life is lived and learned by stretching your boundaries and expanding your horizons. Even if that means tasting a vegetable you don't like, every so often. Or turning off your device, and talking to someone for 20 minutes every few days or weeks.

    Everyone is so eager to let others do their own thing, so afraid to ever imply that what someone chooses to do with their time might not be the best for them, especially when it's children that need guidance and training in life.. that nobody tells anybody to do anything they don't want to anymore. To a fault.

    I ain't that old. I was just brought up to be kind and have manners, and that includes allowing yourself to be inconvenienced for a few minutes for the sake of someone else's interests. Occasionally and within reason of course.

    Phone calls, I get that. Sometimes I send people to voicemail if I don't have the bandwidth at the moment. But that's another area where the younger generations are... Drifting away from societal norms.

    It's like the college recruiter that has to keep special notes, because so many kids answer the phone in silence, they don't say hello, and so you don't know they've actually answered. Even though they scheduled the call and were expecting it. Just odd stuff.

    Again, I'm sure there'll be papers written on this stuff eventually. In the meantime, it's fairly frustrating.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    You said, normally you get along fine, just not this time. What makes you think it's an habitual problem with the entire generation, and not just one moment of "I don't want to be disturbed right now".

    Would you interrupt someone reading a book the same way? If yes, kinda rude in my opinion, because I'm not doing nothing at the moment, I am reading. I don't have time to talk to you right now because I am occupied. Ask "do you have time for a small chat?" and if the answer is no then move on. 20 minutes is certainly overstaying your welcome.

    As to the other stuff you wrote, just seems like a ramble without a clear direction. You seem to imply that the societal norms you grew up with are "correct" and that they shouldn't change

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  • [–] 0 points 2 days ago

    You've got a very 2D picture of this person and the situation, which makes sense, this is a text chat, and I haven't spent hours detailing my life, their life, and the relation between. But give me the benefit of the doubt.

    Some additional context, normally they don't have access to their earbuds in the contexts we hang out, for whatever reason. The only difference is the earbuds. They were still half listening to the conversation, chiming in infrequently, not being standoffish, just distracted and removed, for no good reason.

    And yes, in the context of "the purpose of our gathering together at this time is to socialize, and eat lunch together", I absolutely would feel the same way about someone choosing that time to read a book instead of interacting with the group. That logic is exactly what I'm talking about.

    I'm far from alone in this thinking, heck, there was a meme a week or two ago about how nobody can hang out these days without everyone sticking their noses in their phones the whole time. Same thing.

    Again, I wouldn't be rude to the person in either case. I'll gently try to interact with you for a bit, as a subtle cue that you might be doing something... Abnormal. But nothing more than that.

    Nice way to casually dismiss my points there. That's fine. Yes in my opinion, as I've stated plainly, the way things were in this specific area, used to be better, in general.

    The new way, as you've made clear, is very me-first. I can understand why that appeals to people, I just disagree with it being the correct way, or the kindest way. And I think society will be worse off for it, in general, in the long run.

    But I think we've fleshed this out enough. Agree to disagree. I wish you well in your future endeavors.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 days ago

    If you're making that look to a freind you're not going to be friends long. If you're making that look to all your coworkers, maybe you won't be coworkers much longer either.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 days ago

    Well if you are only listening then it ain't a conversation. Conversations are quite fun, more than listening to some random songs for 10 minutes.

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  • [–] -4 points 3 days ago

    I don't even give them that. I'll pause what I'm listening to, but the earbuds stay in

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