settling a dispute

[chelsea5914]

So, person A is listening to music, music listening being their primary activity. Person B is in this same living space (the space with a sound system better than computer or tv speakers) doing a different primary activity, but music listening is a secondary activity (say B is internet-ing or doing homework- an activity that is somewhat involved).

Comments

Some solutions

[sharpsteen]

The first way to answer this is to ask whether or not person B owns an iPod and headphones. If they do, and they need a certain musical genre to perform their activity, then the onus (burden) is on them to provide themselves with the music of their choosing. I know it is weird to imagine someone sitting in a room with headphones on while all the other people in the room are listening to the radio, but, I'm sure its happened before. I also think this is the easiest solution. The music that is on is too distracting? Listen to your own

Some solutions continued

[sharpsteen]

That being said, I think the answer to the question "Does person B have the right to a genre change" depends on the specifics. For example, lets say the assignment is going to take 15 minutes to complete, and for those 15 minutes, Person B could listen to genres W,X, or Y, but not Z, and person A wants to listen to genre Z. Not using the language of rights but the language of courtesy/respect, I don't think it is too much of an infringement to change the genre for the short period of time which Person B needs. Not at all. However, lets say the assignment is going to take 2 hours. Now it seems that Person A would be perfectly within their bounds to tell Person B to deal with the genre that has been chosen. I know this seems like a weird reversal, it is intuitive that the more important or longer assignment should be given preference over genre...but...if the assignment is that important, I think the burden falls to Person B to find somewhere to complete it. Person B probably knows Person A enough to anticipate what the musical

Re: Some solutions continued

[chelsea5914]

This was kind of a stupid arguement, but I still kind of wanted to get another opinion, which I will probably keep to myself, but nonetheless I am glad I actually got a response. What else am I going to use lj for? You are correct that "rights" was probably not the best term to use in this situation. I think I meant more of a "is it socially acceptable to." I actually get myself into a lot of trouble either being too specific or not specific enough in conversation. Thanks for the input, appreciate it and see you soon hopefully.