{"id":230,"date":"2010-10-01T09:54:53","date_gmt":"2010-10-01T14:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=230"},"modified":"2010-10-01T09:54:53","modified_gmt":"2010-10-01T14:54:53","slug":"while-you-wait-is-this-really-necessary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=230","title":{"rendered":"While you wait. . .Is this really necessary?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why is it when we go into a waiting room, there always has to be a television blaring? It doesn\u2019t matter whether it\u2019s my car dealership, a doctor\u2019s office, or even my tax accountant; you are always forced to listen and watch some television program. Why can\u2019t they set up two rooms, one for those that need the distraction of TV and those that want a quiet place to read and contemplate life\u2019s mysteries?<\/span><\/p>\n

What annoys me the most is when I\u2019m in a waiting room and I know that the wait is going to be long. Inevitably they will have a TV tuned to the local news station. After a while you will have heard the same news bytes numerous times. Do I really need to be reminded so many times how inefficient and contradictory our political system is?<\/span><\/p>\n

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The opposite is even more perplexing. If I\u2019m in a waiting room that has a short wait, why are they showing a movie? You either come in the middle of it and unless you\u2019ve seen the movie before have no clue as to what happening, or you have to leave before it ends, and have no satisfactory conclusion to whatever suspense it has set up.<\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s fascinating to see what the place your waiting at has chosen to put on their TV sets.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I was in a pediatric sick waiting room, where they were playing videos of diseases that kids might have and what you can do to prevent and treat them them. I\u2019m sure the pre-schoolers that were waiting in the room really benefited by knowing how deadly and dangerous Lyme disease can be.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In an optometrist\u2019s waiting room, while waiting to get a new pair of glasses, I got to watch an actual operation on some degenerative eye disorder. Maybe they wanted the graphic detail of the operation to force me to close my eyes and rest them.<\/span><\/p>\n

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At least in my dentist\u2019s office, the TV is unobtrusive and plays a Dental multiple choice quiz for you to take. Now what were George Washington\u2019s teeth made out of again?<\/span><\/p>\n

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While waiting to get my brakes replaced on my car and I was told that there were two waiting rooms, a quiet one and a television one. I chose the quiet one, which was an open area just off of the show floor that had a radio playing throughout the showroom speakers, with not necessarily soothing music. I subsequently moved to the TV room, where no one else was waiting, so I hit the \u2018mute\u2019 button on the TV\u2019s remote.\u00a0 Interestingly enough, as people entered the waiting room, I offered to unmute the TV, and no one took me up on the offer. \u00a0I should note that the TV had closed captioning on, which might have made a difference.<\/span><\/p>\n

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When I write and read, I usually like to do it with quiet. Sometimes music in the background, that doesn\u2019t inspire me to sing along or tap my feet works. Otherwise sounds and visuals cause me to lose focus. It\u2019s amazing how many times I can read the same sentence in a book in those situations and still not know what I\u2019ve read.<\/span><\/p>\n

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People who know me might dispute that I like quiet, in that when I\u2019m driving in my car I am always listening to podcasts, talk show radio stations and stories no matter how short the trip. But the key here is that I\u2019m not trying to read or write.<\/span><\/p>\n

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So I\u2019m all for have a quiet option for waiting rooms. At least provide headphones for those waiting that want to listen to what is going on. Or just keep the sound off and let people just watch; it works for restaurants.\u00a0 How many sports restaurants do you go to that have multiple TV\u2019s on that you can\u2019t hear a thing of what is being said because of the restaurant atmosphere? In those situations I would consider putting closed captioning on for people who really want to know what is happening. But that is a rant for another day.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why is it when we go into a waiting room, there always has to be a television blaring? It doesn\u2019t matter whether it\u2019s my car dealership, a doctor\u2019s office, or even my tax accountant; you are always forced to listen … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[44,45,43],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-stories","category-story-writing","tag-excessive-television","tag-seeking-quiet","tag-waiting-room"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions\/234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}