Personal opinion l Is it reasonable not to wear headphones on public transport?

One night a while ago, after a barbecue at my colleague's house, I was going to take the bus home, and I happened to get on the bus at the same stop as an old man. He and I were the only ones in the car, and Arbor unceremoniously turned the volume of his mobile phone to almost maximum and played it publicly, as if he wanted to let the people around him listen to the movie he was watching. Even after passengers got on the bus one after another, he didn't plan to put on headphones or turn off the sound.

Recently, because of the frequent use of public transportation, I found that many people do not wear headphones when listening to music or watching movies on the MRT and buses. Although I am wondering what kind of mentality they have, I am also curious whether when I encounter this kind of thing, I ask the other party to put on headphones, or when I expect everyone to wear headphones, is it? Reasonable? Or is there room for discussion about my expectation that everyone must wear headphones on public transport?

MRT and bus do not "must" keep quiet "atmosphere attributes"

Then if we look at the spatial attributes of these mass vehicles, what kind of space concept is in the space of mass vehicles? What qualities should such a space have?

Public transportation seems to be a "public place" just like libraries, cinemas, shopping malls and other public places. But in my perception, some public places have a certain "atmosphere" attribute that has public consensus. For example: a library is a space for people to concentrate on reading, so in general, it is reasonable and unlikely to be controversial to expect, require or require users to be quiet. Therefore, if I encounter someone playing music without headphones in the library today and come forward to stop it, it seems that there will not be too much controversy.

However, there seems to be no such "consensus" in mass transportation such as MRT and bus. Although it is a "public place", there seems to be no clear and specific consensus that passengers "must" be quiet during the ride. Under normal circumstances, even talking and chatting on the bus or MRT is unlikely to be stopped. In the same way, not wearing headphones on public transportation is actually the same as chatting on the bus MRT, no different.

In particular, the most prominent function of public transport is to transport passengers to their desired destination. It is not a tool designed for people who want peace or rest. Even if passengers want to get a peaceful rest during the process, it is difficult to become a natural requirement and expectation. There seems to be no clear definition of "space atmosphere" or a clear social consensus on the spatial attributes and meaning of public transportation, so I can't fully expect to get a quiet space on the MRT and bus.

From this point of view, it seems reasonable for others not to wear headphones. If you ask others to wear headphones, but instead put personal expectations on others, it seems to be a selfish behavior.

The attribute of "sound" makes people around you have no right to choose whether to listen or not

Although there are currently no clear regulations prohibiting passengers from playing music on the same device in Volkswagen's home, it seems that passengers have personal freedom not to wear headphones, but returning to the perspective of "right to choose", if I am a "recipient of sound", I have no choice. Especially, from the perspective of the characteristics of public transportation, such as when the space for the bus is narrow, or when the MRT will be crowded with people, there is nowhere to hide from these situations. Coupled with the properties of "sound", it is invisible, moves with the air, and is difficult to isolate in public. Even though it is a personal freedom not to wear headphones, those who are forced to receive music have no right to choose not to receive the sound.

Although there are a lot of sound insulation devices on the market, it is impossible to require everyone in the car to carry earplugs or spend money to buy headphones that can isolate external sounds in order to satisfy a person who wants to enjoy music without headphones! Unless wearing headphones has become popular today, a culture that is acceptable to a wide range of people, and a social consensus, then maybe I need to rethink whether I should compromise and accept the behavior of not wearing headphones in my social context. However, at least what I have observed so far is that most people still choose to wear headphones on public transportation, and many people still feel that not wearing headphones in these places will cause trouble to the people around them.

From this point of view, not wearing headphones seems to be a lack of consideration for the feelings of the people around you, and it seems to be a selfish behavior.

Can only "remind" others about the public interest

I think there is still room for discussion on this issue, and the difficulty is that in addition to not having a set of clear legal norms, the situational characteristics are also somewhat ambiguous. It's not like being "loud" or "yelling" on a bus, other than having a well-defined noise profile, there's no research showing that this situation has a significant impact on others. Moreover, there is no law that stipulates that the voice of the mobile phone cannot be played openly on the MRT and the bus, and there is no penalty for this behavior. Even in online discussions, there is a tendency to think that not wearing headphones is inappropriate, but it is not a behavior that can be clearly marked as right or wrong.

Another problem is that if the sound played by the mobile phone is relatively noisy, such as the sound of a gun shooting, it may be more clearly defined as "noise". But if more beautiful music, such as light music, is that noise, or is it acceptable to play it? Need to be stopped? In particular, everyone's perception of sound is very different. What counts as "noisy" and what counts as "acceptable sound"? Like I can't even accept light music, because even the most pleasant music, when it is mixed with other ambient sounds, it will be mixed into "noise". Therefore, there is no perfect definition of the sound that is acceptable for playback.

The solution to this problem, in my opinion, is to remind others to pay more attention to the public's interests or rights, and to pay attention to whether their actions have an impact on others. If the other party does not agree and does not think that not wearing headphones will affect others, it can only be dealt with in an "educational" way. It is difficult to force the other party to wear headphones, otherwise it may become a moral kidnapping.

Written on 2021.09.28