Do any sounds really bother you? [Archive]

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Tiam

12-31-11, 10:12pm

Just a random question:
Are there any sound that particularly bother you? I hate crackly sounds, smacking sounds, and oddly enough the sound of gurgling water as in small streams or tinkling fountains. Of course there is fingernails on blackboards....:~)

fidgiegirl

12-31-11, 10:58pm

Yes, yes! Repetitive sounds, like songs with lyrics that are really just the same word or phrase over and over. When my DH does too much silly singing ;) Beeping. The older I get, more sounds bother me. Actually, I think the noise level at my former school was part of why I was so stressed out working there. There was no quiet, no respite throughout the day.

pony mom

12-31-11, 11:36pm

Loud music that I dislike (music I like played loud doesn't bother me). Alarm clocks going off. Animals in distress. Lea Michele singing in Glee. Does she have to sing in that baby, breathy whiney voice? Any kind of rap "music", if you can call it that. A group of women screaming "WOO!!". Dentist drills. Someone snapping their gum (which I do, but only when alone). I'm bothered by many things.

Rogar

1-1-12, 12:00am

Cell phones going off in public places and noisy motorcycles, especially on Sunday mornings, are near the top for me. (I find gurgling small streams to be quite relaxing.)

catherine

1-1-12, 12:11am

Bronxboy

1-1-12, 1:01am

Tinny, small TV/radio/iPod speakers or poor quality sound. Bought a high quality iPod dock and setting up a home theater system at home, mostly out of self-defense.

lizii

1-1-12, 3:46am

I detest unnecessary noise. A car horn going off continually drives me nuts, so does a toilet running after it's flushed.

I also hate today's "modern" music, if it's even music...give me Bing, Dino, the Three Tenors, or anything from Beethoven, Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov and I could listen for hours.

Guess I'm just a cranky old woman now.

goldensmom

1-1-12, 6:49am

Repetitive sounds. New age music has a lot of repetition (no structure, no end in sight), newer Christian chorus' with repetitive words and music, TV commercials (one commercial repeats the same 4 notes 83 times, yes, I counted), a cacophony of sounds such as in a large store or mall, the radio on in a car. Unnecessary chatter. As others have noted, as I get older sounds bother me more. It seems as though instead of losing my hearing it's becoming more acute.

IshbelRobertson

1-1-12, 9:28am

I absolutely HATE piped music, whether in lifts (elevators), hotel lobbies or in shops. I immediately turn on my heel if loud, repetitive music is played in shops, particularly clothes stores!

Chalk on a blackboard - luckily whiteboards are now more commonplace.

herbgeek

1-1-12, 9:38am

High frequency and low frequency sounds bug me. That high pitched whine of fluorescent lights is an example of the first one, and car stereos from afar where all you can hear is the bass is an example of the second one.

Background noise just bugs me. In all of the radio commercials, they have to fill the entire sound spectrum even though it doesn't add to the commercial. When we visit my MIL, she has the TV on as background noise making it harder to hear conversations. People who talk constantly just to avoid a possible void of a few seconds.

I'm a cranky middle aged woman. Turn the damn thing off already! Silence is NICE!

pinkytoe

1-1-12, 11:58am

The ever constant roar of traffic off in the distance. Leaf blowers. People coughing and sneezing in public. That noise that men make when they clear their throats and spit. Hip-hop "music". Babies crying. Cats fighting.

Tiam

1-1-12, 12:49pm

Cell phones going off in public places and noisy motorcycles, especially on Sunday mornings, are near the top for me. (I find gurgling small streams to be quite relaxing.)

Harley's in particular. I know most people find gurgling water to be relaxing. I laugh that it sets my teeth on edge.

fidgiegirl

1-1-12, 2:17pm

Harley's in particular.

HATE Harleys. Makes me SO MAD. No one with a car would be allowed to make that much noise on the road. >:(

I thought of more! The beep when the microwave is "reminding" me to come get the food. Static on the radio. Can't stand that.

lhamo

1-1-12, 5:30pm

That noise that men make when they clear their throats and spit.

Here in China, a really hearty throat-clear and spit is how many, many people typically start the day. Including my husband. I don't think he realizes how much it bothers me. But, after 15 years of marriage, I have reconciled myself to it. I now leave the house before he gets up on weekdays, so I only have to deal with it on weekends.

I pretty much hate any loud/sudden noise. Have a kind of PTSD-ish reaction to it, that I think is related to the two serious rollover car accidents I have been in in my life. China is actually a kind of hard place for me, as people here are LOUD! I come from Seattle, where the general vibe is very nordic/quiet. So it is always a jarring experience to get back on the plane to China and be surrounded by people who I feel are pretty much yelling at each other.

lhamo

Tiam

1-1-12, 5:34pm

Here in China, a really hearty throat-clear and spit is how many, many people typically start the day. Including my husband. I don't think he realizes how much it bothers me. But, after 15 years of marriage, I have reconciled myself to it. I now leave the house before he gets up on weekdays, so I only have to deal with it on weekends.

I pretty much hate any loud/sudden noise. Have a kind of PTSD-ish reaction to it, that I think is related to the two serious rollover car accidents I have been in in my life. China is actually a kind of hard place for me, as people here are LOUD! I come from Seattle, where the general vibe is very nordic/quiet. So it is always a jarring experience to get back on the plane to China and be surrounded by people who I feel are pretty much yelling at each other.

lhamo

Yeah, I think that would be very difficult.

AustinKat

1-1-12, 7:58pm

So many kindred spirits! Noise has always bothered me, my entire life. Especially, like herbgeek, very high- and low-frequency sounds. We live in a neighborhood with a lot of college students, and they do love their bass. I find it amazing that they can play their stereo or whatever, in their house with all their windows closed, and it's loud enough that I can hear the bass in my house with all my windows closed. We had to call the police about our next-door neighbors several times before they understood that "please turn it down" includes "and KEEP it turned down."

This all baffles my husband, who often can't hear the sounds that are driving me nuts (although his ordinary hearing is fine). I've never had my hearing tested, but I wonder if I just hear a wider range of frequencies than most people.

One curious thing I've noticed is that my irritation level depends largely on the source of the noise. Nature sounds--thunder, wind, rain, birds--don't bother me at all, no matter how loud. Something like street repair, where there's not really any quiet way to do it...I might be irked, but I can generally tune it out. It's the voluntary noises that make me nuts. Bass, music in stores and restaurants, car horns, people yelling or shrieking for no good reason...these things are easily controlled, and yet so few people think about how much noise they're creating.

Mrs-M

1-1-12, 10:34pm

The sound of a barking dog. (The repetitive, continual sound of a barking dog)!

Having raised six babies, a crying baby doesn't really fizz me anymore, but the sound of a vehicle going by with the boom-box blaring sure does.

So does the steady humming sound of machinery.

Wildflower

1-2-12, 4:56am

Loud TV, screaming kids, dogs that bark continually, rap music, and loud motorcycles.

And leaf blowers - I hate leaf blower noise! Who needs one anyway - try a rake instead of disturbing the neighbors! :devil:

Mrs-M

1-2-12, 1:30pm

People smacking their mouth/lips while eating!

The loud grinding sound my old worn-out washing machine makes!

KayLR

1-3-12, 2:03pm

Just yesterday I was about to club my DH like a baby seal---he had gone through McD's drive thru and had finished his soda, but was eating the ice. Not only the crunching of ice, but the never-ending crashing around of ice in the plastic cup were making me nutz. And I was trapped in the car with him. I wanted to grab it and pitch it out the window!

Also---one other thing he does that drives me nuts is when he yawns, he ALWAYS has to make it loud and vocal on the exhale. Know what I mean?

He is one noisy man. But truly, I love the guy.

pinkytoe

1-3-12, 3:20pm

I just remembered the sound that probably bothers me more than anything...snoring! I grew up listening to my mother's horribly loud snoring and my brother's snoring - both so loud that the noise came through the wallsa from two directions. Naturally, dh is a loud snorer too.

HappyHiker

1-3-12, 4:53pm

Many noises annoy me but the one that sent me around the bend and storming up to my new neighbors was when they were remodeling their kitchen and set up a tile cutting machine directly across from our house outside and put it to use screaming and grinding loudly early one Sunday morning...oh yes, I did go barreling over to their house and threatened them with calling the cops because they were violating the noise ordinance by their 7 AM tile cutting racket.

I did not mention my hang-over nor did I truly know if there was a noise ordinance--but I knew there should be one.

They never did it again in quite the same way--I think they moved it into the garage and started it later in the day.

Blackdog Lin

1-3-12, 8:50pm

The one that doesn't just annoy me, but SCARES me, for no reason I can figure out: that "aaa-ooo-ggaaaa, aaa-ooo-ggaaa" of European films and WWII documentaries, signaling air raids in the latter, and in the former I think/guess it's just the way their sirens sound. So different from sirens here in the US. I've never been to Europe, so am guessing that it's their standard siren sound - I've only heard it in movies.

But the sound of that siren really really scares me, whenever or however I hear it. Sets me on a "high alert" edge. I wonder why.

frugalone

1-10-12, 1:44am

Obnoxious laughs. People coughing during church or concerts (please, go outside). Screaming babies in supermarkets. Yipping dogs. Punk or heavy metal music where the singer is screaming or yelling the unintelligible lyrics (mind you, I do not dislike all punk or heavy metal). TV in general. People chewing with their mouths open.

Yeah, I'm a cranky middle aged woman too.

ApatheticNoMore

1-10-12, 2:14am

I really, really, really can't stand the squeak of styrofoam. If we get a gift that's packed in styrofoam, DH has to undo it. I will not use styrofoam coolers because if I pack stuff in it and it causes a squeak the sound just goes right up my spine.

+ 1000

I think the sound of styrofoam is what people mean when they said "nails on a blackboard", only actual nails on a blackboard don't bother me the way sytrofoam does, that squeak.

Wildflower

1-10-12, 4:14am