Music to the ears?

With mp3 players getting more common and cheaper, it is common to see lots of people plugged into their audio devices and listening to their favourite songs. In the era of walkmans and discmans, they are not so common as they are expensive, bulky and to listen to more songs entitle a lot of carrying discs and tapes around with you which is inconvenient and does not look fashionable.

Now with even handphones offering space and capability to play mp3s, almost every1 is able to plug in to their own mobile song playing device.

Now, here comes the trouble. with a vast majority plugged in, 2 common scenarios occur.

First, you will literally get blasted away by them, sadly to say, not by your own devices but by others. Some people can set such a loud volume that the whole bus or train can hear what they are listening to. Are they deaf or they have already turned deaf by their own devices? They are so irritating!!

Second, most people set the volume to an acceptable level but however, it effectively turned them into virtual deafs. Yesterday and today, I have encountered similar incidents. Those virtual deafs are unable to hear requests from other people to move aside so they can exit the trains. This lead to frustrated people to squeeze past them while they still pay no attentions. Encountered twice from yesterday and today, both time I realised the deafs are plugged in but both cases, the deafs are female. I wanted to tap their shoulders, to gesture to them to take off their earphones and ask them to move aside. Due to them being ladies, it was kinda inappropriate for me and I let it go.

Here, I promise to myself that I will let them know whether the deafs are male or female!