So, I’ve been playing Fortnite for a while and I generally have fun and enjoy it. But, I have noticed that I get annoyed at what I consider poor behaviour while on spawn island. Once spawned I would be standing there minding my own business, normally, and then there would be blaring music from someone expressing themselves with emotes. Shortly after first playing the game I would instantly run away to a quiet corner of the island and sit down and wait for the game to begin. I wasn’t initially aware of the bigger social problem that this indicated.
Have you ever been on a train or somewhere public and found yourself irritated at tinny noise coming from someone’s phone? Have you ever been in a nice mental reverie and been brutally made aware of the real world by someone’s phone making shitty noises of some influencer playing a prank? Have you ever had your ears assaulted by loud music being played in a car as it drove past or even someone walking through town carrying an outsized music player polluting an area roughly equivalent to Manhattan with music as they walk along the street.
The reason all of these situations are irritating is that you, dear reader, have not consented to the noise. If you are playing music at home then that’s up to you. If you have earbuds in and are playing music then that’s up to you. If you go to a concert or gig and there’s noise then you, by definition, have consented to that. What you have not probably consented to is other people making unusual noises in situations that socially do not normally have that level of noise. Imagine you are in an art gallery and someone is walking around with music playing out loud. This situation would be an obvious social faux-pas. We would expect that person to be escorted out of the gallery. The same is true for walking down the high street, being on a train or standing on spawn island.
I like some of the worst music out there, but when I listen it’s a consensual activity. I think that’s why I get so irritated with all the noise in Fortnite or elsewhere in the real world. Perhaps I’m old and grumpy. But also, by talking about consent to noise, perhaps the noise-makers will understand and be considerate.