Am I just a grumpy old woman?

I was thinking about my last post (Sorry about the repetitiveness of it, by the way.  I didn't realize how much it was the same as a previous one until after I posted it.).

I was thinking about how much I enjoy being in quiet environments and how sound really wears on me - mentally and even physically - and I wondered if it is a learned trait or hereditary.  I remember when I was a kid, my mom was so intolerant of sound.  She would always turn the television or radio off or down and she would always be grumbling about too much noise in the house.  I just thought she was grumpy and didn't want to have any fun and didn't want us to enjoy ourselves either.

When I was younger, I didn't mind sound as much as I do now, but I also did my share of sitting in quiet.  I had a friend who would listen to the radio while falling asleep.  When I stayed with her, I could not go to sleep until after she fell asleep and I could turn the radio off.  I would spend a lot of time sitting on the porch swinging, with only the background sounds of the activity in the house and the cars from the street.  I didn't have a television in my room and I didn't listen to the radio all that much either.  Despite my mother's efforts, we lived in a very noisy environment overall.  My dad likes the t.v. on and LOUD.  My sisters always had music or the television on growing up, even if it was just for background noise.  We always had many visitors and sometimes short-term occupants in our house on top of that.  And when I visit them today, their houses are about the same. It is a rare occurrence for their television - or televisions - not to be on and loud.  It is not uncommon for my sister to have a radio playing in her bathroom, a television on in the living room and family room and another television on in one or more of the bedrooms, with people watching or not watching them. 

Now that I am older, I am extremely sound sensitive. I am constantly turning off the television or radio or turning them down. When I go to other people's houses and there is a television on that no one is watching and we are trying to converse, it often takes me a good bit of self control not to ask to turn it off. If I am at my extended family's house, I often will ask or I will just do it myself. Often when I am watching television or a movie somewhere else, I feel like it is too loud for me.

Josh's noise tolerance is about the same as mine - sometimes his is greater and sometimes his is less - but, thankfully, we are mostly on the same page on this. Josh will often turn the radio off as soon as he gets in our van and we don't have a television or a radio in our bedrooms and we have no desire for one. My extended family and even some of my friends have commented (often not complimentary) about how quiet we keep our house.

So, I wonder - Is noise tolerance hereditary or learned?  Am I just a grumpy old woman or could I possibly be genetically predisposed to a low tolerance for sound? Could I have inherited this from my mother or is it just something I have gotten used to over the years of living on my own with Josh?

Does anyone else have an unusually low tolerance for sound?