
Beyond Peace and Quiet – An Addiction to Silence (2008) - synthmeat
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/nov/08/sara-maitland-silence-addiction
======
ZeroClickOk
I loved the article. On interesting point: "For the first few days I wallowed
in freedom: no phone calls, no emails, no neighbours."

Maybe she is talking about email notifications, because most email are text,
so silence. But if you stop to think, when you read email, your brain can
process this as an audible memory, so noise. Much like you read some author
famous quote, and you can "hear" in your mind his voice. :)

------
scholia
Very interesting!

"This is an edited extract from A Book Of Silence, by Sara Maitland, published
by Granta on November 13 at £17.99. To order a copy for £16.99, including UK
mainland p&p, go to theguardian.com/bookshop or call 0870 836 0875."

[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Silence-Sara-
Maitland/dp/18470...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Silence-Sara-
Maitland/dp/1847081517)

[https://www.amazon.com/Book-Silence-Sara-
Maitland/dp/1582436...](https://www.amazon.com/Book-Silence-Sara-
Maitland/dp/1582436134)

------
gaza3g
I've tried earplugs, IEMs and noise cancelling headphones(Bose) and I wonder
if theres something better out there.

I wish there's some sort of an procedure/implant that I could go through so
that I could have a mute button for my ears. When it is switched on, it will
'deactivate' my eardrums so that I could become deaf temporarily.

~~~
hyperpallium
White noise generators (aka static), there's e.g. an open source android app
("chroma doze" \- named for adjustable freq distr by colour bars), or a fan
works too.

I need quiet to concentrate, but curiously find the background conversation of
a busy cafe just as good as absolute silence - and _far_ better than people
whispering, or eating apples, crisps or celery in an otherwise quiet area...
Celery

~~~
mmagin
I've wondered if I'm unusual in finding white noise mentally exhausting.

~~~
loco5niner
You are not alone. For me, it activates my tinnitus if the source is close
enough to my ears. Even before it started doing that, it was just plain
annoying.

------
multimedial
I must admit that I am addicted to silence myself, sometimes. I deliberetly
put earplugs into my ears in order to focus more whenever I got hard work to
do or just am tired and overwhelmed.

~~~
multimedial
BTW, if it is indeed true that one prefers a modality of senses in order to
experience the world, then that sense becoming more fatigued than the others
would make perfect sense...

also
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolation_tank](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolation_tank)

