[lfam]

This is a pet peeve of mine that I developed while doing video production in the live event industry. Unfortunately almost nobody cares about protecting their hearing.

Pretty much everyone in food service in the US exposes themselves to dangerous audio levels throughout their work shifts. My coworkers with SPL meters routinely measured sound pressure levels above 105 dB for hours at a time. But try wearing earplugs as a waiter or bartender... you will be treated like a lunatic.

[zippergz]

You say "in the US." Does that mean you've found other countries to be significantly quieter? I don't think I have, but I'm genuinely curious about this. Have there been any studies on the average sound levels in public places (or workplaces) in different countries?

[specialist]

As a father and fan of live music:

I get cranky when I see kids without ear protection, especially toddlers and younger, who have no control or way to escape.

I make a point of praising the parents who put ear muffs on their infants.

[MichaelGG]

Why make the music so loud as to require hearing protection? That seems inefficient.

[bashinator]

Because the experience of being physically vibrated by the compression waves in the air is amazingly sublime. There's a reason people don't start dancing until you hit a certain volume level.

I wear musician-quality earplugs.

[npizzolato]

Because you don't have control over how loud a band is playing at a live festival. So you can either complain about something you can't change, decide to not attend an event you want to attend, or do what you can to fix the problem.