Is it just Mikey, or are people becoming increasingly LOUD?
Whether in conversation with one or more people, talking on the phone, talking to oneself or simply coughing or sneezing; does it seem to anyone else that people have lost all inhibitions when it comes to forcing their audiosyncracies on others? And if so, to what can this be attributed? The most optimistic answer is that society has collectively developed some serious hearing problems. The least cheerful of theories is that people have become quite crude and not a little uncivil. There is also the more dystopic variant—that many members of society have been dramatically altered by progressively manipulative television programming. And having been thusly altered, they have begun to imagine themselves the stars of their own reality shows and consider each and every aspect of their lives—which sometimes includes the sounds of their bodily functions—something grand that their adoring audiences should be thrilled and privileged to experience. Do they not notice the absence of a camera? Or maybe they are literally filming themselves with the ubiquitous telephone? Apparently Mikey isn’t alone in wondering.
Mikey recently ran a poll on X asking this very question—has society become louder? But the voter turnout was so embarrassingly dismal that no conclusions could be gained from it. Perhaps the minuscule response was due primarily to the lack of an audience, or maybe it hit a little too close to home for all the LOUDMOUTHS who encountered it.
This LOUDNESS phenomenon might not be as noticeable in the hustle and bustle of the world’s urban areas and in fact might be natural there, as overcoming the ambient noise in order to be heard is reasonable. But what about in rural settings—say our mountains and forests—should a telephone conversation be conducted on speakerphone using the vocal force normally acquired through heavy training by opera singers? Does the one being the LOUDMOUTH never stop to think that maybe people in the next county don’t need to hear about their tedious and unimportant family affairs? Just maybe the surrounding minds are not inquiring and DO NOT want to know.
Just maybe the surrounding minds are not inquiring and DO NOT want to know. Hello!!!
Another factor often accompanying the boisterous LOUDMOUTHING is the peculiar speaking habits that have emerged over the last few decades. That is, not only are these people LOUD, they often deploy bizarre and—to others, or at least to Mikey—very annoying speech patterns. Vocal fry and uptalk are among these and it stands to reason that, having probably worked rather hard to acquire and consistently maintain such verbal flamboyance, they want to be sure others get to experience the distinctive fruits of their labors. These speech patterns—to put it nicely—seem awkward, forced, unnatural and are highly irritating. Imagine an American actor learning a British accent for a role. Would they put in all that effort to perfect it if there were no audience upon which to demonstrate it?
In addition to these peculiar manners of linguistic expression, there is often an accompanying hysterical or even maniacal laughter to be enjoyed. This too is usually emitted at such volume that it is probably noted and duly recorded by the nearest Richter scale.
All of the above is merely speculation, of course, and is not backed by any scientific study—despite the laborious polling effort, but Mikey would love to hear other theories or opinions if there are any. This assumes that one can even hear oneself think over the decibelic assault that seems to be proliferating all around us.
The inspiration for this post was made possible, in part, by the unsolicited contributions of Mikey’s exceptionally LOUD neighbors.
And that’s obviously why they call it LOUDMOUTH Mountain,
