The white noise in our lives

I always wondered why I sometimes do not enjoy sitting in restaurants and talking to friends. A feature on Radio 4 this morning finally lifted the secret. Because often you cannot actually talk to your friends: it is simply to noisy. In fact, the feature explained that interior designers over the last decades have often deliberately planned restaurants that were inimical to human conversation to a certain extent. They would advise restaurant owners that interior walls and floors with hard surfaces would reflect the noise and talk of customers to such a degree that it would raise the customers’ stress levels and fatigue. The reason to create such inhospitable places? In encourages people to leave quicker which produces higher turnover. 

And I always thought it was just me!