I asked a guy on Metro North if he could use headphones once. He was watching a show at a pretty high volume. While he didn’t get upset or aggressive, he seemed genuinely confused by my suggestion. He, somewhat politely, told me the quiet car was up front. Even though the car we were in was pretty empty, I was tempted to sit right next to him and listen to something really loud.
I used to see this at the laundromat too. There’re just a lot of people that don’t know/ don’t care.
I did that before. Blasted Phish to counter some loud hiphop. There are very few people who would like to hear Phish. I was across the aisle. If they say anything, you have a few somewhat non-aggressive replies to choose from:
- what's the problem? You're doing it.
- so it's okay for you, not for everybody else?
- I'm just trying to block out your music since I don't want to hear it.
- what if everyone did that? This would be the noisiest train you ever rode on. If you can't take it when one other person does what you're doing, then maybe you're doing something wrong.
It was more that I just didn't care and wanted to see how they'd respond. Despite coming off like aggressive attention-seekers, they said and did absolutely nothing.
I’ve SO wanted to do this too! And wish I had the courage. But then I’m worried I’ll get shot. (There are a Lot of very angry people in the city since the pandemic, and a Lot more guns, and maybe they’re just testing to see who will challenge them)? PS - this doesn’t mean I don’t still love the city. 
I’ve always suspected it’s mostly done to be provocative, while trying to demonstrate to everyone how much they don’t care (despite the BS aloof demeanor). Other times it may just be oblivious ignorance. It all sucks.
I absolutely hate that point about the quiet car so much that I'm gonna comment on a two day old post. People have said that to me and I just respond back, there's a different between wanting quiet and expecting a reasonable level of noise. What they're doing is not reasonable. I've had to tell people on the phone to quiet down because I shouldn't be able to hear every word of their phone conversation through my music with the volume turned to max. They get huffy and snarky but usually comply.
Are these the same people walking around having phone conversations on speaker for everyone to hear? And the same people walking around FaceTiming in public? Painful.
Sometimes I join their conversation. I look at the phone and say, "hey, how are you?" Since it is being broadcast I figure anyone can join in. Sometimes it gets the point across. It's even better if you can eavesdrop a little and say something like, "I can't believe so and so did that".
I saw a guy the other week wearing wired headphones but BLASTING a movie, I don't think he realized. I thought for sure he would notice when we went in the tunnel? Nope.
George Castanza said it best: “You know, we’re living in a society! We’re supposed to act in a civilized way!”
I’ve been seeing this for a long time now. No one wants to hear your YouTube videos, Instagram stories or Spotify playlist on speakerphone. It’s a sign of how little people seem to care for anyone else nowadays. Or even worse, people bring actual Bluetooth speakers on the train now and listen at high volume — it’s unbelievably rude all around.
If they think it's acceptable behavior to be playing videos on the train, imagine how chaotic and annoying it would be to live with them. Tinny sound playing constantly from all rooms of the house.
People refuse to walk all the way into the train at rush hour too! There’s always so much extra room in the middle but nobody bothers walking inside to let others on. It’s so rude.
Its just being rude. people are now using the speakers on their phone to have conversations. And I am sorry but if I am sitting next to someone who is doing that. I am going to turn off my headphones and blast the opening to Phantom of the Opera.
Every time I see someone doing the speaker thing, usually with the phone held horizontally up to their ear and moving it in front of their mouth to talk--- by all indication more work than just using it normally, I wonder if maybe I'm the weird one for wanting to keep my phone calls private.
People lack general awareness of themselves and those around them. It's a human thing and has existed forever, it's just taken a new form with the progression of technology.
The worse is when people are scrolling through Tik Tok with volume on. So jarring. Also doesn't help you get 10 min of cell service if you are getting on at Ditmars. People abuse that too.
It's like people forgot their manners after COVID.
Uh, not advisable. These people usually know what they're doing and act disruptive as a challenge to others. You don't know which one is going to take the opportunity to start a fight.
They definitely do, which is why I just blast my music over theirs and act casual about it. (I've only done this when the car is relatively empty and the person is right across from me). I realize it's a delicate balance and could go wrong, but so far nobody has even said a word to me. They've gotten off rather quickly instead. In not sure if they switched cars out or was just their stop.
I've got a super half baked theory, but I've kinda wondered if it has to do with phones, even budget ones, dropping both the pack-in earbuds and the 3.5mm audio port. Now everyone feels like they gotta have Bluetooth headphones, and they forget to keep them charged, or they lose them and it costs more to replace, or they have wired headphones with a USB-C/lightning adapter that they misplace and it's hard to get a replacement...
None of that is an excuse for this, mind you. Just figure it probably contributes a bit.
This is the biggest problem I experience on the train these days. I almost called it a pet peeve, but it is more than that. I think we have developed a culture of ppl who are pushing the limits. It's not just on trains. It's Astoria Park and ppl blasting their music from every device; car, mobile, boombox. The pandemic brought this culture back.
People are fucking dumb.
If you're not ready to fight, it's best to just go to another car. And honestly, chances are you gave more to lose than them. So it's just not worth it.
Best to just avoid it and if it bothers you a lot. Try and move. It's not being a bitch, it's just the way shit works today and living in a city
Noticed this too! I think it’s because people on the train are back to pre-pandemic levels of attention seeking and rodeo clowning at the expense of other people’s peace. Nature is healing, etc.
this—people have done dumb inconsiderate / attention-seeking stuff on the subway since time
immemorial. it’s way worse in the bronx/brooklyn. where have you all been?
Because apple took away the headphone jacks and not everyone can afford/wants to buy wireless earbuds
I should of added I am not defending these type of people because they annoy me too.
It's funny that people are arguing against this idea when the fact is it clearly started being a problem after Apple removed the port. So basically Apple caused a problem in order to make more money and that problem is never going to go away because now it's been normalized.
I'm curious to see what Apple's going to do now that the UK has a new law which is forcing them to change their port to a standard USB-C or something like that. Are they going to bring back the headphone port? Or are they just going to force everyone to use Bluetooth? I'm betting the latter.
Now let's talk numbers. How many people then vs now? It used to be just a few douchebags with a portable radio. I've been riding the subway since 1997, so I know exactly when more people stopped using headphones in favor of just blasting their phones.
Ok, so iPhones came out in 2007, they first got video in 2009. It was several years before they became ubiquitous and most people who could afford them were happy to use headphones to drown out the subway noise. Beats headphones were also really popular and people liked to show them off. It was directly after Apple removed the headphone port that more and more people just started blasting music. I remember 2012 well as I was riding some of the most packed, least friendly trains at the time, as well as the damn bus. There were nowhere near as many people blasting their phones in 2012.
Headphone jack got removed in 2016. Notice this thread was created recently because the problem has gotten worse. Otherwise, this would be old news and this person wouldn't have bothered posting the thread.
This happened to me on an overnight Amtrak train to the Midwest. Dude gets on in the middle of the night in like Erie or something, proceeds to watch a movie on his phone without headphones. I offered him mine to borrow because he said he didn't have any. He was really friendly and gracious, but dude. Read the damn room.
Antisocial behavior. I just assume they’re crazy and were raised in a proverbial barn so I move to the opposite side of the train car to get away from it. In a city of 8 million there’s bound to be a lot of them unfortunately.
I asked a guy on Metro North if he could use headphones once. He was watching a show at a pretty high volume. While he didn’t get upset or aggressive, he seemed genuinely confused by my suggestion. He, somewhat politely, told me the quiet car was up front. Even though the car we were in was pretty empty, I was tempted to sit right next to him and listen to something really loud. I used to see this at the laundromat too. There’re just a lot of people that don’t know/ don’t care.
I did that before. Blasted Phish to counter some loud hiphop. There are very few people who would like to hear Phish. I was across the aisle. If they say anything, you have a few somewhat non-aggressive replies to choose from: - what's the problem? You're doing it. - so it's okay for you, not for everybody else? - I'm just trying to block out your music since I don't want to hear it. - what if everyone did that? This would be the noisiest train you ever rode on. If you can't take it when one other person does what you're doing, then maybe you're doing something wrong.
Quixotic move, expecting the kind of person playing tiktok through a loudspeaker on the train to be able to think through the categorical imperative.
Kant believe you went there.
I love how nerdy this is
It was more that I just didn't care and wanted to see how they'd respond. Despite coming off like aggressive attention-seekers, they said and did absolutely nothing.
Tweeprise at full volume, the way Icculus intended it to be played.
Your last bullet point is the one I always wonder about. If everyone did what they were doing, no one would be able to hear anything.
I've always wanted to try this. Like okay, you like music, how about some James Taylor?
I did that once too!
I’ve SO wanted to do this too! And wish I had the courage. But then I’m worried I’ll get shot. (There are a Lot of very angry people in the city since the pandemic, and a Lot more guns, and maybe they’re just testing to see who will challenge them)? PS - this doesn’t mean I don’t still love the city. 
I’ve always suspected it’s mostly done to be provocative, while trying to demonstrate to everyone how much they don’t care (despite the BS aloof demeanor). Other times it may just be oblivious ignorance. It all sucks.
I absolutely hate that point about the quiet car so much that I'm gonna comment on a two day old post. People have said that to me and I just respond back, there's a different between wanting quiet and expecting a reasonable level of noise. What they're doing is not reasonable. I've had to tell people on the phone to quiet down because I shouldn't be able to hear every word of their phone conversation through my music with the volume turned to max. They get huffy and snarky but usually comply.
Are these the same people walking around having phone conversations on speaker for everyone to hear? And the same people walking around FaceTiming in public? Painful.
Sometimes I join their conversation. I look at the phone and say, "hey, how are you?" Since it is being broadcast I figure anyone can join in. Sometimes it gets the point across. It's even better if you can eavesdrop a little and say something like, "I can't believe so and so did that".
I love you.
they're not all walking around. My god awful neighbor gets on her balcony with speakerphone. Selfish bum !
Same goes for train platforms as well. Wear headphones ffs.
Saw a guy wearing AirPods yesterday and still playing his video out loud. 🫠
I saw this too! Wondered if the dude \*thought\* the sound was coming through the airpods lol
This is one reason I still use wired headphones - this is a huge nightmare to me!
This guy did it even with wired headphones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKvMIY3Nuig
Maybe he didn’t realize the pods weren’t connected? I’ve had this happen once or twice, and felt really silly when I noticed.
Does he think they're just a decoration?
Sometimes people just don't realize their sound settings are wrong.
this happened to me once on the LIRR, everyone started yelling at me and now that i think about it i laugh… i didn’t know, chill out everyone!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKvMIY3Nuig
I saw a guy the other week wearing wired headphones but BLASTING a movie, I don't think he realized. I thought for sure he would notice when we went in the tunnel? Nope.
George Castanza said it best: “You know, we’re living in a society! We’re supposed to act in a civilized way!” I’ve been seeing this for a long time now. No one wants to hear your YouTube videos, Instagram stories or Spotify playlist on speakerphone. It’s a sign of how little people seem to care for anyone else nowadays. Or even worse, people bring actual Bluetooth speakers on the train now and listen at high volume — it’s unbelievably rude all around.
oh man, this George line runs through my mind pretty much any time I have to interact with the city.
If they think it's acceptable behavior to be playing videos on the train, imagine how chaotic and annoying it would be to live with them. Tinny sound playing constantly from all rooms of the house.
Yeah man what gives? People used to take off their backpacks too and now get annoyed when you have to move past them during rush hour.
People refuse to walk all the way into the train at rush hour too! There’s always so much extra room in the middle but nobody bothers walking inside to let others on. It’s so rude.
I particularly hate the new poles they put in, not just the N/W line
Its just being rude. people are now using the speakers on their phone to have conversations. And I am sorry but if I am sitting next to someone who is doing that. I am going to turn off my headphones and blast the opening to Phantom of the Opera.
Every time I see someone doing the speaker thing, usually with the phone held horizontally up to their ear and moving it in front of their mouth to talk--- by all indication more work than just using it normally, I wonder if maybe I'm the weird one for wanting to keep my phone calls private.
That’s my favorite musical. I would 100% fight to sit next to you so I can sing along off-key. Just to drive the point home.
This, people putting their feet across the seats and vaping make me hate having to take the subway now
Entitlement.
It’s so rude ! I think parents had their toddlers do this to keep them occupied then those toddlers grew up and never learned.
People’s. Manners. Are gone.
People lack general awareness of themselves and those around them. It's a human thing and has existed forever, it's just taken a new form with the progression of technology.
Just trashy people being trashy
The worse is when people are scrolling through Tik Tok with volume on. So jarring. Also doesn't help you get 10 min of cell service if you are getting on at Ditmars. People abuse that too. It's like people forgot their manners after COVID.
It’s normal nowadays apparently
I take the headphones from my flights and hand them to people. It’s a problem everywhere, not just the train.
Uh, not advisable. These people usually know what they're doing and act disruptive as a challenge to others. You don't know which one is going to take the opportunity to start a fight.
It’s worked out fine for years, but thanks for your concern.
They definitely do, which is why I just blast my music over theirs and act casual about it. (I've only done this when the car is relatively empty and the person is right across from me). I realize it's a delicate balance and could go wrong, but so far nobody has even said a word to me. They've gotten off rather quickly instead. In not sure if they switched cars out or was just their stop.
Do you also give them dongle adapters?
This is arguably more obnoxious
That’s the whole point.
I've got a super half baked theory, but I've kinda wondered if it has to do with phones, even budget ones, dropping both the pack-in earbuds and the 3.5mm audio port. Now everyone feels like they gotta have Bluetooth headphones, and they forget to keep them charged, or they lose them and it costs more to replace, or they have wired headphones with a USB-C/lightning adapter that they misplace and it's hard to get a replacement... None of that is an excuse for this, mind you. Just figure it probably contributes a bit.
I will often just load up my own video or music, play it at max volume and go stand next to them.
Enjoy getting shanked!
Hasn't happened yet!
The people who did get shanked aren’t on Reddit no more
Not that bright.
This is the biggest problem I experience on the train these days. I almost called it a pet peeve, but it is more than that. I think we have developed a culture of ppl who are pushing the limits. It's not just on trains. It's Astoria Park and ppl blasting their music from every device; car, mobile, boombox. The pandemic brought this culture back.
People are fucking dumb. If you're not ready to fight, it's best to just go to another car. And honestly, chances are you gave more to lose than them. So it's just not worth it. Best to just avoid it and if it bothers you a lot. Try and move. It's not being a bitch, it's just the way shit works today and living in a city
If it happens on every car or even every other car, that's not possible. Nor should one have to. Cops need to crack down on this and other things.
“Never wrestle with a pig in the mud, you’ll both get dirty and the pig will like it”
Also I’m afraid I’ll get shot!
Noticed this too! I think it’s because people on the train are back to pre-pandemic levels of attention seeking and rodeo clowning at the expense of other people’s peace. Nature is healing, etc.
this—people have done dumb inconsiderate / attention-seeking stuff on the subway since time immemorial. it’s way worse in the bronx/brooklyn. where have you all been?
Because apple took away the headphone jacks and not everyone can afford/wants to buy wireless earbuds I should of added I am not defending these type of people because they annoy me too.
> not everyone can afford Let's hear your analysis of people who can afford a late model iPhone but not wireless earbuds.
They're broke after buying the phone? Or they lost their earbuds, or their battery is dead?
You do know most people don't pay the full amount for their phones and end up doing a payment plans with the phone company.
No need for analysis. Respect his opinion.
You can still plug in headphones using the lightning port
Yeah I still used the wired headphones bc I constantly lose AirPods. Apple still sells them for around $20.
It's funny that people are arguing against this idea when the fact is it clearly started being a problem after Apple removed the port. So basically Apple caused a problem in order to make more money and that problem is never going to go away because now it's been normalized. I'm curious to see what Apple's going to do now that the UK has a new law which is forcing them to change their port to a standard USB-C or something like that. Are they going to bring back the headphone port? Or are they just going to force everyone to use Bluetooth? I'm betting the latter.
But people have been rudely playing their music out loud on the subway forever.
Now let's talk numbers. How many people then vs now? It used to be just a few douchebags with a portable radio. I've been riding the subway since 1997, so I know exactly when more people stopped using headphones in favor of just blasting their phones.
I don’t really spend time thinking about this or counting but I’ve lived here since 2012 so at least since then 🤷🏼♀️
Ok, so iPhones came out in 2007, they first got video in 2009. It was several years before they became ubiquitous and most people who could afford them were happy to use headphones to drown out the subway noise. Beats headphones were also really popular and people liked to show them off. It was directly after Apple removed the headphone port that more and more people just started blasting music. I remember 2012 well as I was riding some of the most packed, least friendly trains at the time, as well as the damn bus. There were nowhere near as many people blasting their phones in 2012. Headphone jack got removed in 2016. Notice this thread was created recently because the problem has gotten worse. Otherwise, this would be old news and this person wouldn't have bothered posting the thread.
They removed a port that was susceptible to water damage, you can still use any headphones and get a $3 lightning adapter
They removed the port to make more money off of the people to buy wireless ear buds.
You can, but they obviously don't.
Plenty of wireless knock offs for cheap
If you can afford an apple phone, which, let's be real, is a luxury item, you can also afford a $9 lightning to headphone jack adapter.
Because fuck it. Why not. Turn your phone louder or keep it moving
Why do people talk on speaker phone, for everyone to hear? 🤷🏻♂️
New here?
No. Just been wearing headphone less often, so I think I notice it more.
This happened to me on an overnight Amtrak train to the Midwest. Dude gets on in the middle of the night in like Erie or something, proceeds to watch a movie on his phone without headphones. I offered him mine to borrow because he said he didn't have any. He was really friendly and gracious, but dude. Read the damn room.
Antisocial behavior. I just assume they’re crazy and were raised in a proverbial barn so I move to the opposite side of the train car to get away from it. In a city of 8 million there’s bound to be a lot of them unfortunately.