What you said reminds me a lot of what David Foster Wallace once said in an interview:

"No, it's um... I mean, there's a difference, though, I think, between being mildly bored and but then there's another kind of boredom that I think you're talking about which is um: reading, reading requires sitting alone, by yourself, in a quiet room. And I have friends, intelligent friends, who don't like to read because they get - it's not just bored - there's an almost dread that comes up, I think, here about having to be alone and having to be quiet. And you see that when you walk in. When you walk into most public spaces in America it isn't quiet anymore; they pipe music through. And the music's easy to make fun of 'cause it's usually really horrible music. But it seems significant that we don't want things to be quiet, ever, anymore. And, to me, I don't, I don't know that I can defend it, but that seems to me to have something to do with when you feel like the purpose of your life is to gratify yourself and get things for yourself and go all the time, there's this other part of you that's the same part that can kind of, is almost hungry for silence and quiet and thinking really hard about the same thing for maybe half an hour instead of thirty seconds, that doesn't get fed at all. And it makes itself felt in the body in a kind of dread, in here. And I don't know whether that makes a whole lot of sense. But I think it's true that here in the US, every year the culture gets more and more hostile - and I don't mean hostile like angry - just, it becomes more and more difficult to ask people to read, or to look at a piece of art for an hour, or to listen, to listen to a piece of music that's complicated and that takes work to understand, because - well, there are a lot of reasons - but, particularly now in the computer and internet culture everything's so fast, and the faster things go the more we feed that part of ourselves but don't feed the part of ourselves that likes, that likes quiet, that can live in quiet, you know, that can live without any kind of stimulation. I don't know."

This is why I love to escape for 1-2 weeks every 3-6 months to go camping and hiking, preferably around Olympic National Park. It's like a complete refresh except you get back from it and there's a serious chance of post-camping depression. Just don't listen to Lord Hurons Meet Me in the Woods for a few months.

I used to listen to audio-books/podcasts whenever I am doing anything mindless. But I just went on a hike this last weekend and didn't listen to anything and it was so peaceful and meditative.

A few years ago I peaked at reading 72 (mostly audio) books in a year, and since then I've been reading less and less. I realized, even though we consider reading to be healthy, that reading THAT much is is its own form of distraction/procrastination/escape.

That's a really great quote. Here's the video for anyone looking for the full interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?src_vid=FkxUY0kxH80&v=UKdZU9Db...

Here's an example of what a soccer game would look like if commented the usual way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vJn5XxWg9U

This is pretty hilarious, but as a fan of both American football and soccer, basically complete nonsense. Soccer commentary is pretty much just as pointless anyways, maybe even more so, since usually the analysis is a lot more ambiguous.

I don't think the point of the video is suggesting that soccer commentary is better. It's simply pointing to the reality of watching NFL sport commentary where we're constantly bombarded with stats, and graphics.

The laugh track in the last two series of Red Dwarf is incredibly off-putting, can't blame that on Americans. :)

Americans invented the laugh track. ;)

Aren't the players literally wearing advertisements in those sports? I find that hard on the eyes, personally. (I realize some US sports do this. Nascar comes to mind.)

One thing I didn't understand when I visited the US is that people applaud in American cinemas. I don't understand why that's seen as appropriate.

I've only experienced that during a movie in, say, the midnight premiere of a popular sequel where people are really giddy. But I've experienced that everywhere including Paris and Prague.

I guess that's what you're referring to because it's hard to call applause during credits "inappropriate." Thought that's something I only experienced out of the States.

It's just fun. We're social animals. Nice to just go along with it instead of being judgmental.

Why is it considered inappropriate to be a participant with an enthusiastic crowd who loved the particular scene or movie? I think it is actually cool.

Where did you go? The only time I have heard applause at a movie is when the credits roll.

Yeah, but why? "Good job, projector. You shine ever so brightly among us. and you never missed the screen once during the whole movie!"

Or perhaps the crowd applaud themselves for successfully going to the movies again.

The possibilities are endless.

A social urge to show appreciation, even when the intended recipients couldn't ever possibly hear it. I've mostly seen it in cases where excitement was already high, like the first night of a highly-anticipated movie, where something exceptionally amusing just happened.

People sometimes express emotion in ways that don't really make sense.

Or maybe the audience enjoyed the movie?

I don't think it's any different from watching a sporting event and screaming and shouting when the team scores a goal. Even if you're all alone, you want to show appreciation.

Have you ever cried because of a movie? If so, why?

I'd argue crying is a much more primal respons than the somewhat arbitrary slap your open palms together to create a noise response.

Must be regional?

The only movie I've ever heard people applaud for was a very political movie (Fahrenheit 9/11). That's also the only time I ever had to stand in line for a movie as well. If it wasn't opening weekend, it was close to it.

having lived here 40+ years, and seen many movies, I think I've seen/heard applause or cheering maybe... 2 or 3x? At the end of a fantastic movie, there may be cheering. Massive stunt that fools everyone - maybe. But cheering/applause at the cinema in the US is certainly not common.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you have mostly lived in all white areas and or watched movies that appeal primarily to white audiences.

Go watch a Tyler Perry movie or the recent black panther if you want to hear lots of clapping or cheering during a movie.

In the last 15 years yeah. Before that probably somewhat more mixed area, but possibly so on movie choices. I don't go to many 'summer blockbuster' sort of movies any more.

I'll never forget the first time I saw a movie in Atlanta...

Do you not live in a big city? Nearly every movie I see ends in applause.

And when I saw Get Out...

Standing ovation at the end.

This happens every time I go to Japan Society in NYC to see an old Japanese film.

I guess it's because it takes effort to get some of those films in good quality or because someone that represents the restoration company is sometimes present, but I don't understand why we're clapping after seeing Yojimbo or some other common film that has been easily available in HD for quite a long time.

Anyway, "Americans clapping after X" has been a meme for some time.

You've never shouted at the TV then?

This is extremely rare, but when it does happen it's during movies where the applause won't detract from the experience - like, at the final explosion scene in a fun action movie.

> I don't understand why that's seen as appropriate.

Maybe we don't understand why you're not enthusiastic to see like, the Death Star get blown up.

No one here is applauding during like, art flicks.

Not everyone in the US does this. I don't usually. It's odd, honestly, because it seems intended to honor the people who produced the film.. but they aren't there to hear or appreciate it. So.. Not sure?

If the idea is just theatergoers feeling togetherness at experiencing the film with each other, then maybe it makes sense? Yet, it's quite different.

God save our gracious Queen... yet she's not there to hear it, most of the time. It's just in us.

Beats the heck out of shining a 1500 lumens torch everywhere in the theatre though. Or whatever output their iPhones produce, they all seem to be stuck at max brightness.

I found that weird, too. Along with using the term “theatre” for a projection event.

Are we not allowed to use our own words to describe things? I find it weird that in addition to our culture, foreigners are judging our language, seemingly just for fun.

Perhaps they are only using their own words...

I don’t go to sports matches very often in any country, but the american habit of yell-talking when dining out at a restaurant ruins most dinners out in the US for me. That, and televisions in establishments in which they are entirely inappropriate.

Part of the yell-talking is trying to hear each other over the stupidly loud music and TVs in our restaurants. But I've noticed that even abroad Americans are louder than most nationalities when eating out.

I grew up listening to self-hating Americans complaining how American tourists are the worst. Then I worked in a hostel in Prague and realized how loud everyone is, and how everyone swears there's some nationality that's the worst whether it's Brazilians, the British, or the Chinese. They're never the loud obnoxious ones as they sit there sharing their bigotry out loud. It's always some other country.

The only constant is that nobody seems content just taking the upper hand of keeping their stereotypes to themselves. Everyone acts like they've lived 5 years in every country and somehow know how it all crumbles. In reality maybe they've lived in two countries and have had day-visits elsewhere. Hardly grounds for being a master of the nations.

Like someone swearing that <some city> drivers are the worst. Almost guaranteed that they grew up there.

American tourists didn't even have a bad rap where I worked in Prague because you just didn't see them compared to the daily horde of Europeans. By the time you work in the hospitality industry for a few seasonal cycles, you get burned out by the exact same conversations, like people arguing over which nation tourists suck the most. Turns out it's probably just the one you see the most of. In our case, the British. ;)

These days it's on HN where people will post the template: "I took a few day trip to <place> and it's insane how <judgmental thing that people seem to do everywhere>."

Speaking of the national stereotypes and loudness, just put together more than 2 Italian tourists and they're guaranteed to be the loudest in the room, they're just unbeatable... but they do it with a lot of charm, I have to admit...

This.

Full restaurants in Italy are a deafening cacophony. It's an arms race amongst people already accustomed to yelling at eachother on a daily basis.

There are cultures in the world that are more obnoxious and more "impolite" than American in my humble opinion (and I'm not implying anything about Italian culture here). However, I think the distinction of noise in America is that it's a cheap way to make people excited, and it wears people out over time.

Soccer is the most boring sport to watch unless you're hammered or rioting. It would be nice if they had some screens up to distract the fans.

At least soccer keeps in the gameplay (as well as basketball, hockey, etc). Baseball and football are mostly spent waiting for very brief moments of gameplay to happen.

That's entirely your opinion. Tennis and Soccer are perhaps the greatest sports in my opinion. Soccer( football) involves tactics and is played like chess, whereas Tennis is about reading your opponent and is incredibly mental

> That's entirely your opinion.

True, but I was replying to a snarky opinion.

I would argue that baseball, nascar or test series cricket might be more boring sober.

George Bernard Shaw —

'The English are not a very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity. '