I’ve ranted about this before, but now I’d like a reality check.
I really, really dislike TVs playing in public places. If they’re muted, fine. In a sports bar where you expect it, fine. But who decided at airports there must be TVs every ten yards blaring CNN or FOX at everyone?
I especially hate TVs in restaurants (again, excepting sports bars and the like). When I go out to eat I either want to converse with my companion, or if I’m alone I want to read. I don’t want a TV blaring at me. I find it incredibly distracting and irritating. I even have a little universal remote device which does nothing but turn TVs off. I use it if there appear to be no other customers actively engaged in watching the TV. I am also not shy about telling the manager or owner that music would be much better for “atmosphere”, though I have sometimes received the impression they are afraid of the place seeming to be dead without the background noise of a TV. I disagree and beg them to put on music instead. And I’ve stopped going to some places because of this.
So my question: Does anyone actually like having TVs around in public? Particularly at restaurants, is this something you want? Wouldn’t background music be better? Am I in the minority on this issue?
I don’t think I’ve seen loud TVs in restaurants or airports for years, even when I visit the United States. Are they really still common in some regions?
I’ve seen TVs in eating places that are as much bars as restaurants, and I suppose most of those were showing sports on their TVs. Fortunately the sound was not loud, or I wouldn’t have eaten there.
After living outside America for about 12 years, I find the high volume of chatter in restaurants to be really annoying. In some cases, it’s so loud you can’t hear what your fellow diners are saying. I’ve often thought that I could have had a fine career as a burglar, because people will talk about their upcoming travels or absences without regard as to who might overhear them.
And yes, I do hate blaring TVs, whether it’s in a public area or in someone’s home.
The ones I hate the most are in doctor’s or dentist’s waiting rooms where you’re stuck, often for a fair bit of time, if you want to get care, unlike a restaurant where you can just leave.
I then go to the receptionist and ask for the remote to mute the sound. I think it is often that the desk staff are bored and it is what they want to listen to. I don’t mind a house and garden show or a baking show, I can just ignore that vanilla time filler.
TVs outside of sports bars are anathema everywhere. Especially in waiting rooms, which I consider an airport terminal to simply be a gigantic version of.
Fox News? If it’s on I turn around and go elsewhere. If there’s somebody handy to express my utter contempt to I will. If not, not.
I have my own idiosyncrasies in public places like restaurants and bars. I really hate making small talk, even with people I know and like (and they know that about me). I also find the drone of background noise from hundreds of conversations very uncomfortable. If there’s a TV on somewhere it gives me something to focus on to help ignore the background drone. Even if it’s a game I don’t care about or news I’d rather not pay attention to.
The volume doesn’t even have to be high for a TV to annoy me. The colors, the change in a picture, and most of all the motion will draw my eye irresistibly.
Catching motion out of the corner of my eye will make me look, no matter how hard I resolve not to. It’s rude to those I’m eating and conversing with, but it’s nearly impossible not to. I hate TVs in restaurants.
I think it’s even worse in someone’s home. Unless the visit is in order to watch a game (or something else I suppose) the TV should be off when guests are in the house.
Today I’m going to the airport and I do hope the Seahawk game is on in the Alaska lounge.
This. People who have a TV blaring at home all day learn to tune out the racket. And they learn to ignore the motion in their peripheral vision. Then they feel discomfited if it’s not everywhere in their lives. Insanity; just insanity.
The rest of us sane people who do not have a TV on just for the sake of being on have no such habitual immunity to the distracting noise or motion.
“The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
. . .
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.”
It doesn’t bother me in most lower-level restaurants. Where it does bother me:
I hate the fact that it always seems to be sports. I get it, in a sports bar or pizza place or somewhere like that, people want to watch the game. And I get it if there’s some important game on. But why does it always have to be sports, or worse, talking heads yammering on about sports?
I don’t like it in more “upscale” restaurants, if it’s visible to the dining room (rather than being confined to the bar). I know, places like Fogo de Chao and The Chart House aren’t the epitome of fine dining, but they aren’t cheap and people do tend to go there to spend time with the people they’re eating with, not to compete for attention with some stupid sporting event. If you want to watch a baseball game, go sit in the bar.
I’m reasonably sure the main reason FOX gets played so much is political propagandizing. It gets played in hopes it will succeed in spreading right wing propaganda among the populace by making it pervasive and inescapable.
I suspect it’s a combination of sports being popular, and largely non-partisan. If they are looking for what amounts to the TV equivalent of Muzak, they go for sports.
Ehh, I don’t really mind it that much when it’s sports that I don’t care about or some entertainment that I might care about. There’s a local theater with a bar that has several televisions scattered around the lobby area that have movies playing on them (thankfully muted). I’ve seen several scenes for movies that were new to me that motivated me to watch the movie at home later.
There’s a nice-ish restaurant my wife and I go to pretty regularly, and they have several TVs always tuned to sports. They’re muted, so they don’t bother me at all. Sound will distract me more than images ever will. I can ignore images by just not looking at them, but if you’re playing some goddam song I never wanted to hear in the first place, I can’t point my ears somewhere else to not hear it.
The one exception was when a pretty good barbecue chain started airing Fox news on giant multi-screen panels at one of its locations, with the sound pretty much cranked. I never went back, but that’s more of a “I hate Fox news” than a “I hate TVs” issue.
I’m just quoting this as it perfectly expresses my own opinion. Worse is if the TV volume is on low while there is a radio playing elsewhere. My poor brain simply cannot handle that.