The quest for quiet – yes please!

In issue 262 we asked if you thought we, as a nation, had lost the art of peace and quiet. Here’s what you told us...

Coffee and clatter

Everywhere you go now there is noise. Even having a coffee with friends you can’t hear yourselves talk above the clatter of the coffee machine and the music. It’s unbearable. It is heaven when I get home to the peace and quiet of the birds singing. Irene Avery, Kent

Noisy libraries

I’m afraid I stopped going to my local library as, in an effort to attract more people, and therefore making a case to stay open, it had opened its doors to the local playgroup and other organisations, which is all very good, but being an open-plan building these groups were then part of the general room. This made it rather difficult trying to concentrate on finding a book, or reading the local paper when another activity was happening a few feet away. Marina Lockwood, by email

Sound of silence

When I recently did some present wrapping for a local charity on their premises, they assumed I’d want the radio to be switched on as I was working on my own and were taken aback when I said I’d prefer silence. It seems that enjoying peace and quiet to think your own thoughts isn’t considered to be normal behaviour. Christine Barrow, Plymouth

Background beats

Why must TV summaries about sports – especially goals scored – be accompanied by loud music and drums? News programmes are introduced with drumming and I find the ‘music’ in the programme Pointless simply appalling and constantly turn down the sound. When I watch documentaries about nature and the countryside, I like to hear natural background sounds, not loud music which often drowns out the commentaries. Jennifer Hammond, Norwich

Loud music

Supermarkets and some shops play music way above an acceptable level, although I’d prefer no music at all. My response is to ask for the manager and ask if the music level could be lowered, and if the answer is no, I walk out. As for people who use mobiles in public places... I don’t burden them with a blow-by-blow account of how much fun I had the previous evening, or that I’ll pick up the dry cleaning or whatever their conversation happens to be about! People seem to have lost the art of privacy. Paula Buttifant, Somerset

Future damage

You would hope that technology would make things quieter, but not so. People ride around in cars with their windows open and all you hear is boom, boom – and it follows you all the way down the road. It can’t do their hearing any good and if they are not careful we will have a generation of young people with hearing aids. Mrs M Gray, Taunton

Bleep, bleep

Everything seems to bleep these days – from telephones to washing machines, bleeping to tell you to turn it off or on. It is so nice to escape to the riverside, sit quietly and just reflect. Carole Perry, W Mids

Cut it out

I was meeting my cousin in McDonalds for a snack and was early. The noise was so loud, I pressed the T-bar on my hearing aid which blots out most of the noise around. I live alone and sometimes at weekends I do not speak to anyone, unless the phone rings. It’s very peaceful and does not worry me. Joyce Tyler, Oxford