Navigating Noise as a Solo Traveler (Part 2)
(It feels like) Everybody is watching and listening to content on their smartphone
From a noise perspective, being around others who are watching or listening to content on their smartphones isn’t necessarily an issue. On public transport in many countries, it is customary for people to wear headphones or sometimes watch on mute. However, this is not a universal practice and there are many parts of the world where people regularly watch or listen to content on their phones out loud.
During my sabbatical, I found myself in numerous situations where this was happening. There was almost constant noise coming from smartphones on public transit (inclusive of buses), at the gym, walking on the street, at restaurants, you name it. Public transit tends to be the worst because you are basically stuck there until your stop arrives. I’ve found that most people are either on social media, watching YouTube videos, sending/listening to voice recordings via Whatsapp, or making a call. As a traveler, it is difficult to decide whether it is appropriate in a given country to ask a local person to lower their volume.
The solution? I’m afraid there is no one-size-fits-all solution here. There were times where I felt comfortable asking somebody to lower their volume, and other times where I did not want to draw too much attention to myself. Especially if you are solo, you will need to assess each situation as it comes and consider the environment around you. I’ve had multiple instances in my home country where I deemed it unsafe and chose to not request that somebody adjust their volume.
In certain situations, I would definitely recommend investing in noise canceling headphones. I personally use these Bose headphones and found them to be a game changer. I used them at airports, on planes and other forms of public transit, and sometimes in my hotel room if there was noise coming from outside. Again, always assess the situation to determine if headphones make sense (I personally would not wear them when walking around by myself at night).
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