
People crave silence, yet are unnerved by it - tintinnabula
https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2018/05/19/people-crave-silence-yet-are-unnerved-by-it
======
BigHatLogan
The article is interesting but I wish it went deeper into one of the theses:
that people aren't craving silence as much as they are craving a lack of
distraction. Noise has always existed in varying levels, but what I think may
be different about the 21st century is how distracted our environments have
become, which can feel like noise.

Here's something strange that happened to me last week. I went to my local gas
station to fill up the tank on my car. As I was standing idly and staring off
into the distance, I heard a voice talking to me. I spun around but nobody was
around me. Afterwards I noticed that the voice was coming from a small, iPhone
8-sized screen embedded on the gas pump. It was showing advertisements as well
as looping the "Hot News" of the day. Admittedly, I became irrationally angry
about this. It felt like an invasion of my mental space. Here I was pumping
gas, already paying money to the business, why are they continuing to invade
my mental space, which is the last bastion of "freedom" an individual can
have? I noticed the whole event put me in a heightened state of tension and
anxiety. I wanted to leave as fast as I could. I wasn't bothered by the other
cars driving on the road, I wasn't bothered by the local homeless population
trading and bartering a few dozen feet from me, I wasn't bothered by any of
this background noise. What bothered me, and what felt "noisy" to me, was this
invasion of my mindshare.

~~~
hfdgiutdryg
I live in Oregon, where you can't pump your own gas (except in very limited
circumstances). I stopped at a station that I don't normally used and was
horrified to see one of those in-pump screens blaring away.

My annoyance turned to laughter when I realized that you can't even see or
really hear the screen from inside a car (I was on a motorcycle). The ads just
play to the poor, beleaguered station attendant all day long.

~~~
BigHatLogan
Not being allowed to pump your own gas has always fascinated me. I believe
Vermont also has the same law in place. Or maybe it was New Hampshire?

Does the overall price increase as a result of not being allowed to pump your
own gas? From the gas station standpoint, they would need to offset the wages
given to the station attendant. Is this difference passed down to the
customer?

~~~
rootusrootus
There is no cost benefit. Self-service increases the insurance premiums for a
gas station about as much as it costs to pay the people who man the pumps.

I still want the option to pump my own gas, but I have resigned myself to the
fact that it will probably not happen here. Even if we made it a requirement
that full service still be offered at no additional cost, Oregonians would
vote it down.

~~~
daveFNbuck
If the costs are the same, isn't employing people a better use of money than
insurance?

I've never used a full-service pump, so I don't get what the problem is. Why
do you prefer to pump your own gas?

~~~
thaumasiotes
> If the costs are the same, isn't employing people a better use of money than
> insurance?

You don't think insurance companies employ anyone?

~~~
daveFNbuck
How many people do you suppose an insurance company hires every time they sign
someone up for a new policy? My guess is that it's a lot less than 1.

------
Isamu
> People crave silence

Not really. Just an escape from noise.

> unnerved by it

... when it seems unusual, or unnatural. In the woods you don't expect the
deer to be shouting on their cellphones.

A heavy, windless snowfall is as quiet as the world gets. Nobody finds that
particularly unnerving.

~~~
amelius
I've been told that within an anechoic chamber [1], it's so quiet that people
start to hear their own blood circulation, which can be pretty unnerving.

> Cut off from the daily noises that usually drown out our body functions, it
> becomes possible to hear the grind of bones as your joints move, the ringing
> of tinnitus can become deafening.

[1] [http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170526-inside-the-
quietest...](http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170526-inside-the-quietest-
place-on-earth)

~~~
Lambdanaut
I've been told that within an anechoic chamber, it's so quiet that some people
start to hear the quiet high-pitched chatter of their nervous system
screeching out a tune not unlike that of a 90s telephone modem.

But if you know what to listen for, you can hear it without an anechoic
chamber.

~~~
keithpeter
Around 3am occasionally I wake up and yes I can hear the high pitched buzz of
what I assume to be my nervous system or possibly just blood circulating
around my inner ear. My neighbourhood is very quiet indeed at that time.

UK: Malvern, Sugarloaf Hill. On a crisp day in autumn. Walking down the
escarpment in complete silence. No birds. One of my most vivid memories.
Strange isn't it?

OA: I found Kagge's book a little thin and shallow - lots of information about
his lifestyle and satisfactions, less analysis. Perhaps that is just me.

~~~
tboughen
There must be something about the Malvern Hills! Last year I ran up
Worcestershire beacon from Great Malvern on a gorgeous spring day. Quite a few
people were up there enjoying the day. There wasn’t a breath of wind, no one
was talking, and the only sound was the buzz of a drone.

------
jonknee
Somewhat related, here's the trailer of an interesting documentary on finding
areas of the US unaffected by human made noise. The jet age has made these
areas quite rare. In a sad twist, the man who has spent his life trying to
find places untouched by human noise is now going deaf (this was a few years
ago, not sure his current prognosis).

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0xHfFC_6n0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0xHfFC_6n0)

~~~
LeoPanthera
Is that sad news? Surely he would enjoy the silence...

~~~
jonknee
Watch the video, he wasn't trying to find silence, he was trying to find the
sounds of (just) nature. I imagine going deaf would be quite traumatic for
someone who spent their life recording sound.

------
snowwolf
The closest I've come to true silence was trekking into the Sahara desert. At
night I went about a km from the camp and sat in the dunes. No wind, no
insects, no sound at all. And I have to say, it was unnerving. Your breathing,
your heartbeat suddenly roar in your ears.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
I've had something close to that, in the Mojave. Your footsteps are _loud_.

------
mark_l_watson
I don’t agree with this idea. My wife and I rented an RV and are camped at
least a half mile away from anyone else. The quiet today before dawn and
morning was fantastic. Similarly when I lived in the mountains in Arizona it
was a huge pleasure to hike somewhere with no sounds but the wind and sit and
read or meditate. Quiet is healing.

------
rthomas6
I think people really crave silence inside of their own head, rather than
silence in their environment. People tend to live by default through several
layers of filtering (emotions, relation to the past, protection of sense of
self, scanning for threats, etc.) and also one or more voices constantly
telling them things that may or may not be related to their current
environment (thoughts).

It is possible to cut through most or all of this and experience relative
silence inside your own head through regular meditation. Highly recommended.

------
neilobremski
Do people really crave silence? I always seem to crave quiet over pure silence
(where the hissing of my tinnitus can become too distracting). There's a hum
and a rhythm to a busy room that doesn't need to be loud: the chatting at a
coffee shop, the rattle of keyboards in the office, the laughter and splashes
at the beach, or of course the sound of a rain storm in full swing. I crave
the peace of those moments and the gentle lull of their sound waves.

------
ChuckMcM
I expect there is a huge personal preference here, as my wife likes things
much quieter than I do. More along the lines of 'hear the tinnitus' but I on
the other hand want some background noise but nothing that triggers cognition.
I can think really clearly for example while sitting on the beach or next to a
waterfall.

Working in open plan offices helped me train my hearing to ignore stuff but
then it gets weird when there is no noise at all.

------
davidjnelson
"Or silence may open listeners up to the unknown reality of themselves: to a
universe within as infinite as the stars. With good reason, that is what
humankind may be afraid of. It has taken mystics to brave it: St John of the
Cross venturing into the noche oscura in which the soul meets the Lover, or
the writer of the Chandogya Upanishad, 'meditating on this visible world as
beginning, ending and breathing in the brahman'. Like a deep dive, engaging
with silence is an act of faith."

Beautiful.

There are some amazing western teachers who teach how to experience this, such
as:

Eckhart Tolle:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtuiEDBKgBU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtuiEDBKgBU)

------
ravenstine
Can people not get used to the silence they are unnerved by?

I keep the fan on at night because I'm used to the white noise throughout the
day, so to have no white noise at night is kind of jarring. But there are
times in the year when I have to keep it off because it'd be too chilly. It's
a bit "unnerving" since I'm now subjected to the jarring silence and all the
little noises made by animals at night, but after about 3 days, I'm already
used to the silence and so it's no problem at all.

~~~
bllguo
I use a white noise generator at night as I live near a major street. More
customizable than a fan, extremely compact, and won't affect the temperature.
Just putting this out there so people in similar situations become aware of
this option.

~~~
rootusrootus
We have a white noise generator that uses a fan inside to make the sound ;-).
Makes far more pleasant white noise than anything with a speaker, in my
experience.

------
j7ake
It’s not surprising that optimal sound environment is neither a barrage of
sound nor complete absence of any sound. The optimum is somewhere in the
middle.

~~~
kashyapc
I think so. It's probably a reason why some people prefer a bit of "human
buzz" when working remotely — e.g. a not-too-noisy coffee shop or a pleasant
library, where you can work at peace, but still feel the human presence around
you. Which can be a welcome change to always working from home.

------
sixstringtheory
just some random memories this brought up for me:

I attended a lecture with my to-be wife while she was in undergrad, where she
had a Deaf studies minor. It was about self-inflicted deafness (this is not
the speaker or material but could get you started if you’re interested to
learn more: [https://primemind.com/deliberately-deaf-
fbeed775c563](https://primemind.com/deliberately-deaf-fbeed775c563)).

After visiting India for a few weeks it was stunning how quiet Boston seemed
when I returned. It was pretty unnerving at first, felt like the city was
locked down or something. More recently hiked the Long Trail for several weeks
in Vermont, and returning to Boston was overwhelmingly stressful. Silence
seemed to be both unnerving and calming depending on the context.

------
dvh
In the feature the most valuable thing will be silence

\-- Voltaire

------
dsubburam
1/3:

Another way to look at silence is to see it as a mode of experiencing, rather
than a lack of sound waves reaching our ears. Can we tune off the perception
of the sounds around us?

If we can, is that a valid experience of silence? In fact, it might even be a
more meaningful interpretation of silence than as the physical absence of
sound -- after all, even when there is an absence of sound, we can be holding
a conversation in our heads with a frenemy...

[Edit: 1/N => 1/3]

~~~
dsubburam
2/3:

Carrying that analogy further, let's say we did "conquer" the perception of
sound down to switching it off. But our visual stimuli is very active. Either
we are captivated by a busy scene in front of us, or though we have our eyes
closed, we are actively dreaming up images. We are still busy. Technically
silent, but not silent in the spirit of the concept.

So to extend our contemplation, perhaps true silence is when we tune off all
perception -- sounds, sights, smells, touch, taste and yes, abstract thoughts
too. For if we are busy thinking up, say, a proof to Pythagoras theorem, that
doesn't quite fit the bill of the concept of silence either, even if there are
no sights/sounds/etc involved.

[Edit: 2/N => 2/3]

