"Frantic" culture shock

[lostnfound]

It is said that 'Americans are entertained to death'. Having recently gone to a BOWLING ALLEY for the first time in 30 years, I was astonished to see the changes.
Gone was the ambiance of polished wood floors gleaming, the sounds of balls hitting the alley and pins going SPLAT, CRASH, CHINK against each other. Gone were the drifting conversations of adjacent alleys.
Instead..

super-sized flat screen TVs in a solid massive block above the pins, half of them displaying half-naked people dancing in leather for the entertainment of the 7 year olds attending this bowling-alley-birthday-party, and the other alternating half displaying a football game..

pulsing music blaring nonstop from speakers all around..

electronic score boards tallied not only the name and score for each player, but the average speed of the ball and the player's 'conversion ratio', and cartoon characters did dances popping up whenever you scored a spare or a strike..

railings prevented the balls from going into the gutter, which you couldn't actually see very well because the lights were so low except for shiny blue lights in long rows between the lane..

Think "disco dance floor".

So much for any feelings of nostalgia.

On the plus side, the air was 10,000 times cleaner than the bowling alleys of my childhood, and in fact, the whole place was far cleaner -- at least in those few areas well lit enough to be able to tell.
The kids had fun. But I am in culture shock.

[NOW tense]

1. Not all new bowling alleys are like that.

Typically the bowling you are describing doesn't start until around 9 p.m. the rest of the time it just a normal bowling alley with the fresh smell of lysol being sprayed into shoes.

[Lorien]

2. I see that at a lot of places, especially local restaurants and bars

it seems like the last thing you can do with one another when you "go out" these days is have a conversation! No wonder people are feeling more and more alienated from one another.

[lostnfound]

5. That's the point actually.

I've noticed especially in the 'entertainment' for kids, there are many occasions where they simply blast music -- to an extent I wonder about the impact on their hearing, let alone their friendships.

I'm not talking places for teenagers, either. Ever walked in a Chuck-E-Cheese's?? The noise is so bad my ears were ringing within 5 or 10 minutes. Come to think of it, they were ringing after an hour at the bowling alley.

[NashVegas]

3. Good Lord - What Bowling Alley Did YOU Go To?

Football, I've seen, but not MTV.

"Moonlight" Bowling isn't what it used to be, I don't know why they need the disco lights.

[lostnfound]

4. This was at a kid's birthday party at 1 in the afternoon.

In Houston.