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   Chicken :cqlgusu: (lookitmychicken@blorbo.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Sep-2025 18:06:03 JST Chicken :cqlgusu:

   General question: when you are hanging out with friends, do you always (or nearly always) have something playing on a screen? E.g. movie, tv show, YouTube

   I've been reading a long fic where, whenever people are hanging out, they start playing a movie on someone's laptop. They may watch it together, but for fic purposes they're surreptitiously feeling each other up, or making out, or falling asleep, or doing anything other than actually watching the movie.

   This would drive me nuts.

   If I have a thing playing on a screen, it's because I want to pay attention to it. The idea of having a video playing as ignore-able background ambience

   • Embed this notice
     whim :hamsterdance: (whimwitch@blorbo.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Sep-2025 18:20:23 JST whim :hamsterdance:

     in reply to

     @lookitmychicken yea a lot of times something is on even if we weren't paying full attention to it

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     Chicken :cqlgusu: (lookitmychicken@blorbo.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Sep-2025 18:31:40 JST Chicken :cqlgusu:

     in reply to

     • whim :hamsterdance:

     @whimwitch would you be willing to talk about why you do it? It's such a foreign concept to me.

   • Embed this notice
     Chicken :cqlgusu: (lookitmychicken@blorbo.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Sep-2025 18:33:25 JST Chicken :cqlgusu:

     in reply to

     • Elise "yuuana" Moreno 🪷

     @yuuana I could have Spotify playing via tv, but that's for the music, not for something to watch.

     What sort of tv would you consider as background noise? Are there some things that work, and others that demand more of your attention?

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     Elise "yuuana" Moreno 🪷 (yuuana@wandering.shop)'s status on Monday, 15-Sep-2025 18:33:26 JST Elise "yuuana" Moreno 🪷

     in reply to

     @lookitmychicken
     Honestly, for me it really depends on the friend group and why we're hanging out. If I'm hosting and it's not to watch a movie or a game, I'd probably still have the TV on for Spotify, but turned down for ambience purposes.

     I'm someone who's pretty used to the idea of using the TV for background noise, but it's also pretty specific to using the *TV* - I can't do that on my laptop, video there I have to watch or I'll get twitchy.

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     whim :hamsterdance: (whimwitch@blorbo.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Sep-2025 18:35:32 JST whim :hamsterdance:

     in reply to

     @lookitmychicken sure! usually its something weve already seen and we're just binge watching together while multi tasking. when i was in college, i rewatched a few anime like that while me and my friends were also drawing or doing class work. we'd also be talking and would sometimes be talking about the show itself or other things over the show. the volume would be pretty low like background noise. it was always a show we'd all already seen before (we all liked inuyasha, so a lot of times it was that). idk why we did, it was just something we all shared an interest in and im positive everyone there was neurodivergent, so the multitasking helped i guess

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     Léto le Gaosaure (legaosaure@blorbo.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Sep-2025 18:38:16 JST Léto le Gaosaure

     in reply to

     @lookitmychicken I learned to ignore it because I've known a few person who do that. For me it's either "I'm watching, and I mean REALLY watching" or "this could as well not exist", no in-between. I'd rather have nothing on screen if the group is in "not watching" mode, but as I said... had to get used to tune it out =/

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     agoodboysforeverhole (agoodboysforeverhole@blorbo.social)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Sep-2025 01:10:06 JST agoodboysforeverhole

     in reply to

     @lookitmychicken Some people do that, yeah. I can’t even stand music. Do like washing machine background noise, though.

   • Embed this notice
     Chicken :cqlgusu: (lookitmychicken@blorbo.social)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Sep-2025 19:07:56 JST Chicken :cqlgusu:

     in reply to

     • whim :hamsterdance:

     @whimwitch ah I can understand having something you've already seen playing in the background. If it was something I'd already watched, I wouldn't feel like I was missing stuff.

   • Embed this notice
     Chicken :cqlgusu: (lookitmychicken@blorbo.social)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Sep-2025 19:11:28 JST Chicken :cqlgusu:

     in reply to

     • Elise "yuuana" Moreno 🪷

     @yuuana sports can be okay in the background if it's something I don't care about. e.g. if someone else is watching it. but then I think I'd feel anxious about disturbing the person who's actually watching it 😅

   • Embed this notice
     Elise "yuuana" Moreno 🪷 (yuuana@wandering.shop)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Sep-2025 19:11:29 JST Elise "yuuana" Moreno 🪷

     in reply to

     @lookitmychicken

     A lot of times I'd have sports on. A game might turn into a moderate distraction if things suddenly get intense in the game itself, otherwise it makes a good excuse to get together & pretend to watch a game when really we're just catching up with each other (or I'm home alone doing housework).

     In theory, something we've all seen a dozen times could work, up until it got to That One Really Good Bit. 😂

   • Embed this notice
     whim :hamsterdance: (whimwitch@blorbo.social)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Sep-2025 19:13:42 JST whim :hamsterdance:

     in reply to

     @lookitmychicken oh yeah, we never did that with stuff we'd never seen! when i was in highschool, i used to go to the movies or watch stuff in a boyfriends basement as an excuse to canoodle, but whatever was on didn't matter. it was just an easy excuse/probable deniability lol

   • Embed this notice
     RockyC (rockyc@fosstodon.org)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Sep-2025 19:15:00 JST RockyC

     in reply to

     @lookitmychicken Sounds like a generational thing to me. I usually don’t have anything playing on the television except the Apple Music app showing what track is playing, or maybe the lyrics, and that’s if the TV is on at all. If there’s a sportsball event going on, I’ll turn it on if any sportsball fans are there, or if someone requests it, but if they are coming to see ME, why would I have a TV on?

   • Embed this notice
     Chicken :cqlgusu: (lookitmychicken@blorbo.social)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Sep-2025 19:15:00 JST Chicken :cqlgusu:

     in reply to

     • RockyC

     @RockyC for me, it hasn't been a generational thing. One of my grandmothers always had the TV on since I was a kid, my mum does it, and I know people my age as well as younger people who do it.

     Maybe it's generational in some cultures?

   • Embed this notice
     Chicken :cqlgusu: (lookitmychicken@blorbo.social)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Sep-2025 19:16:06 JST Chicken :cqlgusu:

     in reply to

     • agoodboysforeverhole

     @agoodboysforeverhole When my kid was a baby and couldn't sleep, I'd park their pram in front of the dishwasher and it would send them off.

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     Chicken :cqlgusu: (lookitmychicken@blorbo.social)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Sep-2025 19:21:21 JST Chicken :cqlgusu:

     in reply to

     • Ulik

     @ulik oh no, having the volume up loud would stress me out

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     Ulik (ulik@urusai.social)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Sep-2025 19:21:22 JST Ulik

     in reply to

     @lookitmychicken People in my family like leaving the TV on (preferably LOUD). I hate it, even music on the background is too much for me in general.

     In general if something was on screen it was because we were watching or someone was playing some game. It was quite common for my roommate play something on his TV and I play something else on my Switch at the same time (and of course I’m using an earphone).

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     Chicken :cqlgusu: (lookitmychicken@blorbo.social)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Sep-2025 19:30:34 JST Chicken :cqlgusu:

     in reply to

     • two slightly distorted guitars

     @rhamphorhynchus I guess your nana was joking about wearing out the switch??

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     two slightly distorted guitars (rhamphorhynchus@mastodon.nz)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Sep-2025 19:30:35 JST two slightly distorted guitars

     in reply to

     @lookitmychicken my nana used to leave the TV on all day - she said turning it on and off would wear out the switch!

     I'm like you though, I don't like pointless noise. If I'm going to watch something I watch it. My sister has a youtube playlist of favourite boybands, some songs are audio only, others are music videos or dance performances - music that may have a visual component if you're looking that way. I don't mind listening to the music and sometimes walking through the room and stopping to see a dance.

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     agoodboysforeverhole (agoodboysforeverhole@blorbo.social)'s status on Wednesday, 17-Sep-2025 20:35:52 JST agoodboysforeverhole

     in reply to

     @lookitmychicken You get it!