Is this a thing now?

No, I haven’t. And while I listen to music while I walk, it is through ear buds; so it doesn’t bother anyone. Playing it loud enough for others to hear sounds very rude to me.

And most libertarians seem to agree that one’s right to listen to music ends where it can be heard by someone else.

My problem would be in telling someone to turn it off, I guess I would ask the people to turn it down so as to not disturb the wildlife.

Yea I’ve come across assholes playing music in the woods for as long as I’ve been going out in the woods. I can’t fucking stand it. If your going to listen to music while out there throw some headphones. Most of us go out for walks in the nature to escape all that and just listen to the peaceful sounds of nature, not your shitty music….- _ -
\rant

I hear your pain. Thanks to a combination of ever-increasing technology and the same for poor manners, personal space just doesn’t exist anymore, anywhere. It’s one of my soapboxes, but I’ve reluctantly decided that railing against it, is pointless. I used to glare at people screaming into their cell phones, for example, but finally gave up on that.

Sounds like the most disheartening scene from the Invasion of the Body Snatchers!!!

PS: I just saw an ad for a new HTC phone recently that has new and improved speakers, so you can listen to your shitty superficial top 40 music wherever you go, without headphones!!!

Personally, I don’t see the problem. Playing music in the woods. Okay. It’s not like they’re burning the woods down, are they? The woods are still there after they pass, and… they do pass, right? Presumably the music isn’t played at levels that will damage your hearing, either.

Outside my door every day – and now with the warmer weather getting here it’s going to be daily – I have people revving their stupid Harleys at the stop sign by my house as they start onto the main road. I have idiots with rap who I can hear approaching for a half-mile or more (and when they stop – if they do – that’s when they chuck their trash out the window for me to pick up later) and the kids down the road will be running their whiny ATVs and minibikes incessantly, too.

This is all happening at my house, and I can’t very well get away from it.

You’ve given me a great idea. Maybe I’ll go out in the woods and play some fucking music. Like a psychopath. Of all the fucking idiotic notions…

Wow. What is the world coming to? People playing music out of doors? Oh. My. God! Was the music accompanying the burying of a dead body? Were they playing bowchicka porn music while they fucked in front of an audience?

As long as they’re not trying to kill me, fuck me, or God forbid… playing gangsta rap… I don’t care if psychopaths want to listen to music in the woods. I’m a lot more annoyed with psychopaths who let their children scream in restaurants. Or psychopaths who get in the 15 items or less express lane with a cart full. Or psychopaths who talk/text on their phones during a movie. Or psychopaths who encourage innocent bystanders to stare at their filthy ass because they’re so “thug cool” that they can’t wear pants that fit correctly.

Today’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic…

No. People on cell phones in parks still piss me off. Not city parks, but provincial or national parks.

I marvel at the campsites near my family’s cabin where everyone brings a damn television. I mentioned this to someone recently, and they remarked that camping nowadays seems to be an excuse to get drunk and do all the stuff you do at home but out in the woods.

Thanks, @ucme. I can’t get that song out of my head.

@bkcunningham Picnic time for teddy bears, those little teddy bears are having a wonderful time today…:D

Yep, @WillWorkForChocolate, that’s indeed what the world is coming to, has come to: people blasting their music and screaming on cellphones anywhere and as loudly as they like. But guess what? Some people, and I daresay it’s not just old fogeys like me, still think there are places where silence is golden.

@ucme, watch them, catch them unaware…grrrrrrr Oh, well, it sure is a small world, after all.

I’m a gummi bear, yes i’m a jelly bear, i’m a rootin tootin…oh fuck!!

Playing music or talking on the phone (equally annoying in my book). They are people who are not in the moment or the experience. They don’t know what they’re missing.

I thankfully haven’t experienced this. I also, thankfully, have not experienced people watching television while camping, probably because I have only been camping at parks that don’t offer electricity.

I haven’t been out much yet this year, so I’ll let you know if I find something different. I hope not.

I guess it will become a new thing soon. It has already started with people playing music on their phones in places like grocery stores.

Back in my day, hiking was for enjoying the sounds of silent nature and smoking marijuana.

I do really resent the idea that people can’t be anywhere in public without some music playing in the background. It’s the worst in grocery stores and waiting rooms. We are afraid of being without distraction in each other’s presence.

Unless it’s Uncle Walter waltzing with bears, listen here, it’s all bad.

Once upon a time, in the early 80’s, my husband and three year old daughter and I took a canoe trip down Crystal River in Missouri. We were gone for 5 days. We camped where ever we could find a place. We THOUGHT we were way out in the middle of absolutely no-where…well, and we were. For 3 of the 5 days we were camped high on a bluff, not a soul around, by a small cave called Crystal Cave. That cave had a spring in it that poured out the most beautiful, surreal blue water. It was soooo quiet, so peaceful, so beautiful. We saw maybe one, two at the most, people float by our bluff each day. Utter serenity. Bird singing, wind gently blowing….
Then, on our second day my husband and I heard something far off in the distance on the river…and getting closer. Suddenly we could hear it clearly, and getting louder and louder….“In A Gadda Davida”, full blast on a boom box. It was insane.
That is a little different though, because we did make eye contact with those canoers, waved, and…they actually turned the music down as they passed even though there was nothing in our body language that said they should (I mean it’s a cool song….just SO out of place there!) Yeah. They turned it down as they passed.
That was just an aside, actually, but I feel for you…what the hell has happened to our society? Our constitutional “rights” seemed to have warped into the right do do whatever the hell we want, and to hell with everyone else. WHERE did that attitude come from?

It’s like going camping…you get to your favorite camp sight and…it’s totally trashed with beer cans and plastic and dirty diapers and shit everywhere. Why do people even GO camping or hiking? Oh yeah…to enjoy the serenity of nature.

It just sucks.

I don’t get away from the city much anymore, so I can’t really comment on the “thing”-ness of it. I have memories from way back, though, of blaring music in campgrounds. There actually seems to be a bit less of that nowadays, probably thanks to the ubiquity of headphones.

I’ve visited a lot of cathedrals because they’re awe-inspiring spaces, and a good dose of awe is…well, awesome. Even though I’m not Christian, as soon as I walk into a cathedral I go dead quiet. It would never occur to me to tromp through the aisles whistling, talking and laughing. Part of that is the effect of the awe on me; awe shuts me up, inside and out. And part of it is concern for the experience of the others in that space. Sharing the awe with others makes it an even more powerful experience.

But then, I certainly recognize that the right music in that cathedral can add to the awe. I would feel lucky if I were in the cathedral and someone fired up the organ with the Ode to Joy. I certainly wouldn’t feel lucky if someone broadcast Eminem. Why? I’m not sure, but I think there would be a broad consensus that it’s out of place and contributes nothing to the awe.

Many of us approach natural spaces in the same spirit that we visit cathedrals: we want a dose of awe. Personally, the woods shut me up, just like a cathedral does. I would feel lucky if an elk bellowed, or a finch sang, but I wouldn’t want to hear ZZ Top. I may have a hard time explaining why that’s different, but the difference is hard to ignore.

Maybe some folks aren’t there for the awe. Or maybe the music adds to their particular sense of awe. I don’t know. But here in the age of headphones, there’s no good excuse for inflicting your experience on others.

My husband used to take phone calls in the living rom on his cell while we were watching a movie. Yeah, he’d sit there and just talk talk talk. I was floored…how could he do that? Finally I started turning the TV down when he got a call. He asked why I did that. I said, “There is nothing worse than trying to talk to someone when they have a TV blaring in the back ground, and it was either that or turn the volume up so I could hear the movie.” He now moves to another room to take phone calls.

His daughter used to do that too. We’d have 5 or 6 people, including kids, running around the living room. She’d get on her phone and just yell to be heard above the commotion. Finally one day, when she was sitting next to me, I said, “Honey…could you take that to another room? There are too many conversations going on at the same time.”
She goes “Oh! I’m sorry!” and went to the kitchen. It’s like..if they just have it a second’s thought they’d fully understand how rude it is. But…they don’t. Somebody else has to tell them. That’s the part I don’t get.

I think some people are bored with the sounds of Nature. They imagine they’d like to be alone in the woods but are so indoctrinated into today’s technology they just can’t bare the quiet. Nope; bring on ZZ Top instead of hearing birdsongs and the sounds of a creek flowing over rocks. It reminds me of my s/o and his having to have the tv on all day long for the purpose of what? It seems like a nervous disorder to me.

One more argument for private property ownership.

We have our own 5 acre woods with a pond. Soooo quiet out there.

Pretty peaceful at my house, thank goodness.

My woods and stream now

My field

Next week

Don’t think it is uncommon.

It also seems that they cannot sit in a campground without somekind of music going. Have often wondered why they bother to “get away” if all they want to do is bring it with them.

@tom_g Would you have reacted differently if they had pleasantly smiled at you as they walked past and said hello in return?

I think it’s useful in these situations to ask the question; Are everyone’s rights being respected in this event? Which of course throws up a whole host of other questions. Personally, I think if they are enjoying the outdoors, have the courtesy to respond to people that walk by them (thereby acknowledging and respecting the presence of other outdoorsie type people) and maybe had the music at a lesser volume, it wouldn’t trouble me so much :-)

Good question, @nebule. Relevant.

Beautiful @gailcalled.

If it was just 1 or 2, and quickly gone, then I could just blow it off. But if the woods were full of clashing music I would hate that.

This technology today…it’s not all good. My grandkids and I were out planting tomato plants and roses the other day, digging in the dirt, finding grubs, talking about uses for tomatoes, talking and laughing, and at least two woman walked passed with their kids, apparently taking a walk with them on a beautiful day…but all of their attention was on their cell phones. What is UP with that? The only technological thing I had in my had was my camera

I go to the woods to get away from electronic things.

If you are in the woods and you want music, bring a guitar or some djembe drums.

Bastards.

We are just so bombarded with noise pollution. That there seems no escape.

Thanks to everyone who has answered the question.

I have been hiking and camping for roughly 37 years. The reason I am asking this question is because in those 37 years, I have seen exactly 4 people listening to music while hiking. And all 4 people have come in the past 2 weeks.

If I had come across a man playing a tuba while swimming, I would be pretty confused. But if two weeks later I witnessed 3 more unrelated people playing the tuba while swimming, I would be forced to ask the question here on fluther.

Playing music out loud while hiking seems equally as absurd. When I worked with adult schizophrenics, they usually have headphones in their ears at all times because it would help drown out the voices. Recently, I have also come across people who seem addicted to noise (tv or radio), so maybe that’s really what I’m seeing. We have had kids come over to play with my son, and when they enter the house the first thing they do is look around and ask, ”Where’s the tv? Where’s the xbox?” When they find out there will neither of those things, some of these kids seem to get quite anxious. It seems that they are incapable of finding entertainment in other, creative ways. So, part of my question is really: What I am seeing here? Is this a complete fluke or is this a thing? And if it is, why? What explanation is there for it? Why is the man struggling to play the tuba in the waves at the beach?

But obviously, it’s not just a curiosity thing. I will readily admit that while the first time I saw it was extremely confusing, yesterday’s experience was downright terrifying. Heading into the woods on public trails or hiking a mountain seems to be the one place where I can reset. It’s my peace, and it’s not just mine. It’s for everyone. For 37 years I have ventured onto the trails only to come across people who are there for the same reason. It’s Saturday, and they’re not out shopping, they’re not at the mall, they’re not sitting around watching tv. They value the outdoors enough to enter it and leave civilization and noise behind temporarily.

So to be honest, I was near tears. I saw what seemed to be a trend of bringing the noise culture right into the only possible escape I have had.. It’s where I take my kids to experience awareness together – of nature, of other animals, of life and death, ourselves, and of other people.

@CWOTUS: ”Personally, I don’t see the problem.”

I didn’t expect you to. And you might not have had to read it as a problem. But you could have made an attempt to answer the question.

@CWOTUS: ”You’ve given me a great idea. Maybe I’ll go out in the woods and play some fucking music.”

Cute.

@WillWorkForChocolate – I seem to have hit a nerve. One that kept you from answering the question. Sorry.

@thorninmud – Yep. Headphones are fairly affordable at this point.

@Aster: ”It seems like a nervous disorder to me.”

You could be right. I don’t know. I think you are right about the possibility of being bored with sounds of nature, or can’t bare the quiet. But it is unlikely that these people have actually heard the sounds of nature, or have experienced quiet if they are playing a radio in the woods.

@josie: ”One more argument for private property ownership.”

Of moutains, forests, and state parks? Or do you mean we should all purchase a plot of land we can walk around on and not have to come across someone dragging a flat screen tv up a mountain?

@Dutchess_III and @gailcalled – That’s beautiful. I am quite envious. My .23 acre lot just shrunk.

@nebule: ”Would you have reacted differently if they had pleasantly smiled at you as they walked past and said hello in return?”

Do you mean, would I have a better understanding of this phenomenon? I don’t think so. Pointing out that these people avoided eye contact and did not say hi in return was simply to express how completely unusual the entire thing was.

Anyway, I’m not in any way proposing to outlaw this odd behavior. I’d rather understand it. I will still hope that this is a rare thing. But I know deep down that this is yet another opportunity for growing. If I can develop empathy and understanding, I will lower my resentment and fear. If this is really something that I will see again, I hope to meet these people in a way that maybe they have yet to be met.

the other thing that mobile phones can be used for in the woods of course is geocaching (GPS software) and I often get looks from people whilst I’m geocaching with my son – they must think “how ignorant to be taking her son out for a walk and staring into her phone” ...things are not always as they seem.

I don’t understand why they can’t just keep their music to themselves. Do they think others WANT to hear it? I think I’ll get a tshirt that says, “I don’t want to hear your music or your phone conversations.” Maybe if enough people wore one they might get the hint.

Not sure if it’s a new thing. Except maybe people before were more discreet about it. Like they used their walkmans or disc mans or wtv. Still, my mom often took me camping as a kid, and this one place we’d often go to, people had campers and trailers. If you walked around the site at night, it was all lit up, and often, music was playing. Talking about the early nineties here. Nobody seemed to mind. There were rules of course, so you couldn’t blast your music all loud after a certain hour, but it was there.

I often did ask myself, what’s the point of camping if you’re doing it in a camper that’s better than your living room? Lol. I just slept in a tent, and had to get out as soon as the sun came, else you’d bake in there. But I don’t think it’s a new thing. I’m not an outdoorsy person much, so I could be wrong. But there are these woods I like to go take walks in sometimes, but I purposely avoid the trails and the parts with people. Not so much because I hate people, but wilderness looks so much prettier without any human intervention, even man made trails. We got tons of big woods around here, and they take a while to get to from town, but they’re worth it.

But in answering the question, I’m not entirely sure it’s a new thing. Although I guess if you’ve been camping for 37 years and have now just encountered this, it could be. But people jogging in the woods with earphones or bringing a portable radio to the beach, that’s nothing new to me. Although people these days can’t seem to be able to live without their smartphones, so there’s probably a huge increase of wood music these days.

Pfft…what’s the point of walking in the woods if you do not want to LISTEN to the sounds of the forest and the sounds of silence?
Oh well..better than the freaking beer cans and crap I pick up on my river trails on a regular basis. People suck 99% of the time. lol
Nothing worse than finding a flippin’ Pampers in the bushes!

Don’t even get me going about the assholes that let their dogs chase and harass the ducks and geese at the rivers, lakes and parks. Bah!

I think @Symbeline may be correct when she suggests it may not be a new trend, take a look at this brazen act from way back… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn8YubD01sk&feature=youtube_gdata_player, my goodness gracious me!

It just wasn’t always so very portable.

I hear you @Coloma. WHY do people go camping if they’re just going to throw trash everywhere? Do they see it as a chance to not have to act like they do at home, and use a trash can / sack? Is that their idea of “freedom?” Just throw the bottle into the woods, or the lake or wherever.

Rick and I were once camping with a friend of his and his girlfriend. This guy was an asshat (they are no longer friends.) When we got to the campsite the first thing I did—the first thing I always did, was pick up the trash. I made a comment about how tacky it was to just throw stuff around.
Later that evening, after we’d been drinking, the asshat looked me dead in the eye and threw his beer bottle into the woods. ...... ? WTF? The gesture was, most definitely, directed at me. I looked at him in utter surprise, and he smirked. He threw ALL his bottles into the woods. I never said a word, but I cleaned it all up the next day making sure he was around (and sober) when I did it.

Ah, yes. The Lone Outdoorsman character in Gurney Norman’s novel Divine Right’s Trip, a hippie classic introduced to my generation in the flip-art novel we found in the lower left hand corner of every page of the 1972 issue of the Last Whole Earth Catalogue. We were all appalled to read of a middle-aged guy in a Winnebago with guns, a full cocktail bar, toilet and TV who professed to love the Great Outdoors. Parked it in the deep woods of the Rockies, spent the first night watching Bonanza, while the TV audio could be heard to the next ridge. It was considered the ultimate in bad taste, plastique to the extreme. He never left his vehicle the whole time he was there. He was a metaphor for the older, pro-war, corporate, suburbanite, totally unhip generation. Very few of us had, or ever hoped to run across such an animal in the woods. This was a cardinal sin against all that was good. We really thought it couldn’t get any worse than that.

But here we are 40 years later. They are everywhere, they are many, their arrogance has no bounds, and they need only a phone and neurotic self absorption to fuck up that part of the trail for everybody else.

I understand completely, @tom_g What a Pain in the Ass.

@Dutchess_III What as jerk! That would be my 1st and last time hanging out with that guy.

Whether it’s “a thing” now or not I do not know, or much care.

What I do know is that the question is the very model of modern “tolerance” as practiced by so many who preach that we all need to learn and practice it. It means that so many of those who demand it insist that we be tolerant of them and all of their actions and beliefs, and they’ll be tolerant of all who agree with them. Those who don’t so agree are apparently all psychopaths.

It was close to one of the last times. The LAST time was when we went to his birthday party a couple of months later. We were in the back yard, every one else was in the garage. He got pissed at me over something and shoved me. I shoved him right back (he had this look of surprise and…dare I say “respect” or “admiration” or something when I shoved him right back, really HARD?) and escaped into the garage and Rick and I left.

@CWOTUS – I think you have me confused with someone else. I am someone who frequently advocates for intolerance. Can you tolerate that? Sound like you’re having difficulty doing so. Spoiler alert: Nobody’s out to get you.

Yesterday I went to sit down on a stump at the park by the pond and almost sat on a shard of beer bottle glass. :-/ Nice!

At one time I moved into a 3 story house. Each floor was an apartment. The middle floor was inhabited by college boys (foot ball players.) I quickly established seniority (and, in fact, became a de facto house mother…they’d wander in looking for food and stuff) and told them to stop throwing bottles and bottle tops into the yard. I said, ‘How would you feel if one of my kids wound up with their foot sliced wide open just because you want to throw beer bottles off the deck?”
Ed said, “I…never thought of that.” They never did it again.

I honestly think some people are freaked out by the idea of being alone with nature’s quiet sounds and their own thoughts, so they need music to fill the void. Usually I hear it with people jogging around parks in towns, not so much the wilderness. That said, one can always use some kind of earbuds, but perhaps that’s too much shielding form the outside noise; you don’t want to not hear a bear growling at your or a mountain man sneaking up behind you with a gun.

But yeah, I’ll play music while hiking in the woods: John Cage’s 4’33” on loop.

I like your question, @tom_g. I like it for the other questions it is bringing out in my mind. For instance, why do we think the woods is a place for quiet? Would the same feelings be sparked if you were walking with your family along the shore and came upon people playing music that you could hear? Were there perhaps others who were seeking solitude in the woods in that who found you and your tribe offensive and brass? If a radio plays in the woods but no one is around to hear it, does it make music? Do you think this is a good example of you not being able to see the forest for the trees? Just pondering.

@DominicX I agree, many people are fearful of silence and being alone with themselves without constant diversion. I’m not one of them. Stillness speaks.
It’s a fine art to learn to love silence for some. :-)

@tom_g I didn’t expect you to. And you might not have had to read it as a problem. But you could have made an attempt to answer the question.

I seem to have hit a nerve. One that kept you from answering the question. Sorry.

Technically, quite a few people didn’t answer the question, but I guess that’s okay if they agree with you. You just kinda proved @CWOTUS‘s point, lol.

I don’t know if it’s a “thing” or not. I’ve been bothered by loud, raucous music for as long as I can remember, no matter where or whose. (It’s been portable since transistor radios became hugely popular in the sixties.) Just like a bad smell, you can’t shut it out. I can’t make my quiet louder than their noise. I’ve closed up my whole house tight in summertime and been unable to escape the bombardment, such as from neighbors working all day on their cars in their driveways and having a radio blaring the whole time.

As a city dweller, I have to expect a certain amount of commotion, but I don’t have to like it.

Getting to the woods is an event for me. It involves travel. When I get to the state park or other preserve, I want to enjoy it for what it is. I want to hear the tiny rustles of small creatures among the underbrush. I want to hear the birds. I want to hear leaves fall. Not just music but loud conversations and screaming children bother me. People bring their own enormous racket with them and seem completely unaware of where they are.

I realize that this is my own sensitivity. About all I can do is wait for people to pass me on the trail while I linger in the pockets of quiet. I’m in sympathy with others who value the peace.

It shows a bad attitude to Nature in my view, like leaving litter. Those who don’t respect Nature should stay at home.

@Jeruba I meant more portable. You couldn’t stick radios or boomboxes in your pocket.

I know where I would like to often stick them when they blast me at inappropriate times. It is close to the back pocket area.

I LIVE in the woods. So when people just show up blasting music when I’m out in the middle of nowhere, I yell at them to shut it off or I will come over there and shove it so deep up their ass that they are going to need a general surgeon to change the song. They almost always shut it off.

I’m annoyed by those dumb bastards who pepper the beach looking for god knows what with their pointless metal detector thingies…go away, really quickly.

@Symbeline: “Technically, quite a few people didn’t answer the question, but I guess that’s okay if they agree with you. You just kinda proved @CWOTUS‘s point, lol.”

Of course I thanked “those who have answered the question”.
But out of curiosity, which @CWOTUS point did I prove? The one where he thought I was some kind of “tolerance” police (despite the fact that I am far from it)?

Well, bitch out the people who agree with you but haven’t actually answered the question, not just the ones who don’t agree, or don’t care about wood noise. Seems kind of biased, and odd.

I think I’m in the wrong thread…there was something about love mentioned somewhere…

@Symbeline – re: biased – That’s what we’re engaged in here. Like your post. I’m not “bitching out”, “technically”. I didn’t ask if people if they care about wood noise. So, yes I am going to expect some usual characters who feel it’s worthwhile not to merely defend people’s right to be dicks – but to actually defend being a dick.

To answer your original question, in my woods I occasionally meet the faun with the goat’s hindquarters who is playing his pipes, but “live and let live” is my motto.

@tom_g So you can be a dick, but nobody else? :p

@tom_g This question comes down to civility, which seems to be sorely lacking in the people you’ve met on your recent hikes. I have close relatives who can’t sleep without the television on, and it is sad really.

I am a lover of silence, too. I appreciate the void it creates. For me personally, it stems from having tinnitus and bipolar disorder. The former eliminates any possibility of my ever achieving true silence this side of the grave. The latter peppers my mind with random dross that I would not wish on anyone.

I have skimmed this thread, and I’m quite surprised at the level of vitriol. It seems another example of the loss of civility.

@Hawaii_Jake Agreed.

Aside from the idea – my own opinion – that just because people like things that I don’t like doesn’t necessarily make them dicks, even if I really dislike what they’re doing, I’ve often heard that if you’re walking in deep enough woods (and in Connecticut that can be pretty much any wooded lot) you’d damn well better make enough noise that the bears hear you coming and leave.

I don’t think you’re a dick for wanting to have a quiet walk in the woods, @tom_g. What makes others dicks just because they don’t want the same? In a few minutes of tolerance (yes, I’m the one arguing for tolerance, real tolerance) you’ll be out of each others’ hair. Where’s the harm?

But what do I know? I’m just a psychopath arguing against intolerance and prejudice. Who would ever take me seriously?

@CWOTUS The difference is my wanting silence doesn’t affect others. Their playing music however affects me. Why couldn’t they wear headphones that way we both win? I get silence, they get music. And yes in @tom_g ‘s case he was walking by the people but I’ve been 15 miles into the woods, set up camp, only to have some assholes set up a camp site a couple hundred feet away and play music all night. Should I just get up and move my whole site now so we can both be happy?

I think that’s a different case, @uberbatman. Sailors have to deal with the same thing from time to time. Since anchorage is free at non-regulated sites such as deserted coasts, it’s not uncommon to find a perfect deserted anchorage on a late afternoon of a multi-day cruise, spend the necessary time to drop anchors and secure for the evening… and then have a party boat discover the same “perfect anchorage” and practically raft up next door. And it’s perfect in their eyes because it’s not deserted.

Sometimes you just have to put up with things. You don’t have to like it. Headphones get uncomfortable after a while, too. I agree that manners should be practiced, but I also take strong objection to people being harshly labeled because they live their lives differently from the choices that I would make.

And in the case you describe, you have the same choice as the sailor: you can leave; you can ask them to modify their behavior, or you can just put up with it. I’ve learned to accept a lot of things that I don’t like… and hope that those fucking Harley riders get T-boned by cement trucks. We all have our dreams.

If you are walking and encounter three groups of people in a short period of time, are you really in the woods?

It’s definitely not a new thing, people were walking around with this sort of thing on their shoulders in the 1990s and probably earlier. People playing music outside doesn’t annoy me as long as I can get away from it if I wish. Sorry to say, in my mind I had a similar reaction to @WillWorkForChocolate when I read this question. I certainly don’t think people sitting around in the woods, listening to music is as big a deal as some people here seem to. People have different ways of escaping their everyday lives and if they enjoy listening to music and being in nature then I see no problem with mixing the two. I certainly don’t think any less of them than those who just want to enjoy the sounds of nature.

When anger appears on these threads, it is often distributed over a large area. On this thread, it seems to be isolated. I think that is a good sign.