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Don’t shush me!

Dont shush me!

There are many ways to ask someone to lower their speaking volume. You can put your pointer finger to your mouth, you can whisper “be quiet” or you can even harshly shout “shut up.” But by far, the king of the most irritating and unnecessary ways of quieting someone down is “shushing.”

Even just seeing the letters “s” and “h” standing alone in that order makes me cringe. “Shushing” is my biggest pet-peeve by far. It’s harsh, it’s shrill and often causes spit to fly out of one’s mouth, along with being rude and unreadable—what’s not to hate?

There are aggressive shushers, there are constant shushers, there are nondiscrete shushers and there are mixtures of all three. Regardless, whenever they do their terrible deed, a part of me wants to cover my ears and curl up into a ball.

Many people are unaware of their actions when they compulsively let the sound slip out of their lips. They may think they’re just kindly requesting silence, when in reality, they are sending darts through my ears.

The real problem with “shushing” is it’s quite difficult to read the tone of such noise. It’s hard to really tell if one is actually thinking, “if you don’t shut your mouth right now I will throw a book at you” or instead, “I really wish they would be more quiet.” This missing information causes a lack of dire knowledge: the real nature of the “shusher’s” request.

In fact, in many cases, if you ask someone to be quiet by shushing, they will probably feel more inclined to retaliate and therefore talk louder. Well, I mean, that’s what I do. Let’s just say, if you really want me to be quiet, you better not shush me.

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About the Contributor
Eliza Goldberg, Staff Writer
Eliza Goldberg ’17, is one of many newcomers this year to the Inklings team, and is excited to be a part of the entire process. After taking Introduction to Journalism last year, she saw a great opportunity in taking Advanced Journalism. “It was something that seemed like it would be a lot of fun,” she said about writing for Inklings. This past summer Goldberg went to Camp Walden in Maine for her seventh and final summer as a camper. Camp has always been an integral part of her life, seeing as she has developed strong relationships with her friends there. On having to leave camp she said, “I was really not looking forward to saying goodbye, but I plan on coming back next summer to visit with my friends for camp’s 100th reunion.” Most of her camp friends live in the New York area or in Washington D.C., and she always makes time to see them during the year. In school Goldberg enjoys social studies, English, and math. When asked if Journalism is something that she would like to pursue in the future, she said, “I think so. It’s a possibility, and I could envision myself writing for a magazine or newspaper.” Other things she is passionate about include horseback riding and photography. Her love for photography only strengthened after taking Digital Darkroom at Staples. A passion for photography and writing will undoubtedly make Goldberg feel right at home on the Inklings team.  

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  • A

    Austin OvertonAug 31, 2023 at 3:22 pm

    I agree. I was watching Gran Turismo and laughed when one of the characters was funny. My brother had the nerve to (as loud as he possibly could) go “SHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!” and I just about punched him in the face right then and there. It pisses me off whenever someone shushes me. To add insult to injury, whenever someone does it to me, no matter how or what, a gallon of spit comes careening out of their mouth on onto my face. I’m sick of it.

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  • D

    DranoTheTerribleFeb 26, 2023 at 6:46 pm

    Shushing strikes me as incredibly condescending, because it says to me that the shusher doesn’t even consider it worth the effort to use real words. If you’re going to tell me what to do, at least make the bare minimum effort of saying it in words and not sounds!

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  • J

    JJJun 23, 2021 at 10:06 pm

    OK I don’t know if this thread is still being read here but I had to post a comment because I feel EXACTLY the same about people going sshh. I just find it cringing, like when someone runs their fingernails along a chalkboard. It seems to be used in all languages as well! I never use sshh to others, but I’ve always felt alone in this because I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who feels the same way. They sshh me or each other and don’t seem to get offended, but when I get sshh’d I cringe inwardly and feel invalidated all of a sudden. It’s a horrible feeling and sometimes I have expressed anger after being sshh’d which then makes me feel unlikeable. But I just can’t help feeling like this and I’m glad there are others out there that feel the same way. It was like I was born to hate the sound of sshh.

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  • A

    AllyMar 10, 2020 at 6:27 pm

    I’m 36 years old and my mom still shushes me. It drives me nuts. We’ve gotten into many fights about it, yet she continues to do it. Just today, I stopped by their house to drop off a document they needed and when I opened the front door, I said, “Hi mom where’s da…” (in a reasonable volume) and before I could even finish my sentence, my mom put her finger up to her mouth and said, “SHHHHH!!!”. I almost screamed at her but instead, I gave her a nasty look, slammed the document on the kitchen table, turned around and left without saying another word. Ugh! She could have let me finish and asked politely, “Your dad just got off 3rd shift and is sleeping so could you please keep your voice down?” She didn’t need to shush me. It’s just so rude. I’m supposed to go to their house for dinner tonight but I don’t even want to see my mom right now. I don’t want to be around someone who always treats me like a child. I’m going to text them and cancel. I wish I could afford to move far away from them. Seeing them only on holidays is plenty.

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