Volume and Passive Agressiveness

One of the things that drives me crazy about this technology age we're living in is the volume.

Yes, people talking on the phone is annoying. When I'm sitting in this quiet coffee shop and suddenly the guy at the next table starts having a conversation into his headset, speaking as though he were addressing someone sitting across a board room table (not quietly) I find it horribly rude. It's disruptive. Even if someone were sitting at his table, latte in hand, they would be using regular, non shouting voices.

But that's not the worst of it.

Because even though the world is full of cell-phone loud-mouth yappers, I live in a world populated mostly by children. Mostly by boys. And boys play video games.

Video games, in case you didn't know, make noise. They make noise when they shoot, or walk or bump into walls. There is sound effects, background theme music, and general beeping.  And no one likes to listen to this stuff unless they are the ones playing.

We always make our kids turn the volume off. Not DOWN, mind you, but OFF. All the way. In the car, in the coffee shop, and even at home. They are welcome to go elsewhere if they wish, like to a bedroom or a playroom. For Christmas, Santa left each of them a pair of children's headphones, the "old fashioned" kind that sit outside the ear instead of in it. They can use those.

Our kids, however, are not the problem.

Right now I am sitting in the coffee shop. I am on the computer. Another parent is at another table at a computer. And someone I think is a grandfather is at another table with his nook. He has two children with him playing a game on an iPad. With the volume all the way up. It is so irritating.

Every once and awhile, after a particularly loud "Bling" the other computer parent will look up and look at the kids before turning back to his work. I have looked up at them several times. The grandfather hasn't moved his eyes from his electronic page. I wonder if he's deaf?

I have found myself here with Andy, and made a point of saying, rather loudly "Andy, make sure the volume is off, no one wants to hear your game." Either they didn't pick up on my rather obvious hint, or they think a little computer game noise blends well in the coffee shop atmosphere.

I just don't want to actually SAY anything. That might, you know, be uncomfortable.