What, exactly, is noise pollution? According to the Wikipedia entry on the term, it is any "displeasing human-, animal- or machine-created sound that disrupts the activity or balance of human or animal life."

Balance. Now that's an interesting concept, especially to a city-dweller, for whom sights like the one to the right are part of the routine unpleasantness we collectively endure. After all, what could be less "balanced" than the matrix of subways, all-night diners, and blazing lights of our urban eco-systems? But yet, as humans, we still strive to find balance and create a semblance of control over our lives in these over-populated concrete jungles.

It's not surprising, then, that we flinch when we're stuck in close quarters with noises that disrupt our personal quiet. For me, listening to someone's cell phone chatter, hand-held entertainment center, or even the tinny beats emanating from their ear buds is the definition of short-term hell. I usually read on the subway, and to be plunged head-first into an aural world I didn't choose makes me a little ornery to say the least.

I've been known to ask people to turn it down, ask how'd they like it if everyone blared their business for all to hear, or simply glare in their direction. Sometimes my efforts have worked, more often they haven't.

So it was with enormous pleasure that I read this article in Sunday's New York Times about other people for whom such 21st-Century noise pollution is equally disturbing. Among them is Amy Alkon, who chronicles her experiences with rude people in a section on her blog titled - what else? - "I see rude people."

Will the Times article have any impact? Doubtful. The people who should be reading it are too busy making "urgent" phone calls every time they get a decent signal. But at least it lets us ornery people know that we're not alone.

[Image: Daniel Schwen from Wikimedia Commons]