Clueless in Amtrak?

"Ridiculous!" "Inconsiderate!"

I heard these comments, and others, as I took my seat yesterday on the scheduled 2:00 regional Amtrak train from Washington to Philadelphia. Those comments weren't directed at me, thankfully, but rather to a woman one row ahead of me, on the other side. She was watching a movie on her laptop computer, and the sound carried throughout the car.

After deliberating a few moments, I got up and approached her. As I did, I noticed with some puzzlement that she actually was wearing headphones, and that they were plugged into the laptop.

"Excuse me," I said to her politely, "but the sound is kind of loud. Is there a way of lowering the volume?"

Seeing her puzzled look, and remembering the headphones, I suddenly had an idea. "Could you check to make sure the headphones are plugged into the correct jack?" I continued. There are two of them, microphone and headphone, and they look alike."

She looked at me, then at the computer. We unplugged the headphones from the one jack and replugged them into the other. Immediately the sound stopped from the laptop speaker, and instead went through her headphones. Until I spoke to her, she had been unaware that her actions were annoying others.

This phenomenon is known in communications theory as the "blind spot." Sometimes we do things or say things that affect others (usually negatively), but about which we're unaware. In this case, the woman's blind spot arose because no one (until me) told her that the sounds were bothering others.

Be aware of this blind spot when you yourself communicate with others.