He Played A Video Game On A Plane Without Headphones. Wow, Did He Hear About It!

by SharonKurheg

The internet has all sorts of interesting things to discover and you can find a whole lot of them on Reddit.

Established in 2005, Reddit is an American social news aggregator, web content rating, and discussion website. Registered members submit content to the site, such as links, text posts, and images, which other members then vote up or down.

Reddit has an area called AITA, which stands for “Am I The A-Hole.” The community is defined as, “A catharsis for the frustrated moral philosopher in all of us, and a place to finally find out if you were wrong in an argument that’s been bothering you. Tell us about any non-violent conflict you have experienced; give us both sides of the story, and find out if you’re right, or you’re the a-hole.” It’s kind of like a “jury of your peers” sort of thing.

We’ve mentioned other situations from AITA in the past:

Welp, was reading Reddit the other day and found another situation where the writer was asking this “jury of their peers” if they were an a-hole:

AITA For playing a video game without headphones on an airplane?

I took a trip and brought a game (an old-school RPG called Lunar if anyone’s wondering) I’ve been wanting to play. The airplane was much louder than the ac or fan i use at my house for white noise because of thin walls so I figured I’ll play the game with the sound on with my small PSP and without headphones. After a few minutes, the person next to me who was working on a laptop suddenly shot me a dirty look and asked me passive aggressively if I could turn the sound down. I was stunned a moment by the suddenness then I did turn the sound down and I think I might be the asshole because maybe I broke some etiquette rule since I’m not a frequent flier like it looked like they were, but I have been wondering if they were the a-hole or if I was.

So, was the person an a-hole?

The original post was written about 7 months ago there were over 325 responses in the thread. Not surprisingly, every single person who replied with an opinion about the original post said that the person was being an A-hole. You can read all of the responses here (heads up: the post contains adult language), but some of the more memorable replies included:

  • This has nothing to do with flying etiquette, you would have been the a-hole pulling this s–t in any public space where people are in close quarters.
  • YTA. It’s rude to make others listen to the sound of your music, movie or game on an airplane. On a game in particular, the little noises it makes can make it impossible to sleep or read a book. By contrast, airplane noises are largely white noise and easy to ignore.
  • Wow, yta! I can’t believe you actually made unwilling people listen to the voice acting in Lunar! Its so bad that there should be provisions in the Geneva Convention barring anyone from hearing it, period.
  • Calling it an etiquette thing, it’s just common sense/courtesy. If you don’t have headphones you don’t have noise in public
  • YTA. Basic manners dictate that when you’re in a crowded place with people who can’t avoid you, you should try to minimize your effect on them – this includes not microwaving smelly food in the office, not blocking a crowded sidewalk, and not playing sound without headphones on an airplane.
  • YTA but not a huge one, now you know for next time, its polite to wear headphones in public.
  • Most airlines actually require headphones to be worn. I’m surprised the flight attendants didn’t say anything to you. YTA

A while back, I wrote a post about how not to be “that guy/gal” when traveling. At the time, I didn’t include “if you’re going to play videogames, wear headphones” bcause, well, I didn’t think I needed to; I thought it was a given. Silly me and guess what I’ll include in the revision?

Curious – what would you have said to this person?

Feature Image: Public Domain

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary

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