This pretty much only applies to me when I'm at work, because it's the only place where it's too difficult to just walk the hell away from the source of the sound. I've fallen into a habit of carrying my Sennheiser IE7's (in-ear monitors) everywhere with me, their noise cancellation helps greatly with annoying sounds which I can't get away from.
> People noisily chewings/slurping food, like a cow or a 5-year-old. It is APPALLING to see so many adults doing it, full grown adults for christ's sake. They have been doing it for so long they are permanently tuned-in to that noise and end up selecting it out of their hearing. But everyone else hears it alright. Table manners, learn them for fuck's sake...or eat your food in a far-away cave.
> Chewing/popping gum all day long, very noisily. Wish I could just shoot these people
> Constant whistling/humming loudly, often just for the heck of it - nobody wants to listen to that shit, keep it inside your head.
> People noisily chatting across the room in foreign languages - you're being downright rude to everybody else who can overhear you but can't understand you. I've seen people insulting others in loud conversations held in foreign languages even when the person they're insulting is sitting nearby. Speak English (or whatever the accepted language is) or keep it to yourself, talk quietly or talk in private.
> Phones which go off every 20 seconds from receiving constant texts, the user KNOWS they're receiving texts and still decides to keep the phone at full volume all day long. There's this guy at work who uses a loud WHISTLING ringtone, so you can imagine how bad things get for me.
So many of these are just about having good manners, good work ethics and being considerate toward others...but no, life is never that simple.
I wish human ears were as easy to simply "switch off" as our eyes. I wish...
Oh well, I shall always love you Sennheiser IE7's...