7 ms·

Quiet

228 points by kuroshit 9y ago

DogestFogey 9y ago
A truly masterfully written article that makes us yearn for the days now past when everything, both inside and outside of ourselves, was much quieter. The amount of noise today is unprecedented. I am reminded of the movie _Her_ in which one sees a world where technology can move into the background and augment human relationships. Granted, there are moments in that film when the tech hurts instead of hinders, but compare that to today's world where everything has the "in your face" mentality.
- mooreds 9y ago
  If you want to read a really scary prescient fiction book in this vein, check out Feed by M.T. Anderson. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_(Anderson_novel) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_(Anderson_novel) Just chilling.
  - stephth 9y ago
    The plot context overview on Wikipedia is chilling just by itself...
  - Hextinium 9y ago
    I highly recommend this book to anyone because it creates a framework for understanding the world from someone who is addicted to social media. It takes the current state of affairs to their conclusions in a rather well made way.
  - purplerabbit 9y ago
    Super glad to see this book getting some love. It's horribly good... Ignore the YAF branding and read it as a novella if you're interested.
thestepafter 9y ago
This article brought on more sadness than I thought it would. As I have grown older and remember times like the one the author described I miss the quiet and peace of an unconnected world. It is a pity that younger generations will never know the this feeling unless it is forced. The freedom of being quiet is sadly lost to the past.
- torpfactory 9y ago
  I think that in the future there may be a distinct division between people who have control of their own attention and connectedness and those who don’t. I already see a division between some people I work with - noses buried in their phones all day, and those who tune it out and get real, deep thinking work done.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - kristineberth 9y ago
    I have a sneaking suspicion that in the not-too-distant future there will be a very significant cultural backlash against all of this noise, all of this hyper-connectedness.
    - fiatpandas 9y ago
      Could you elaborate on your thinking here? My prediction would be gradually the hyper connectedness becomes the norm while the last generations who remember “quiet” die. Of course there would likely always be small fractions of the population who look to the past and practice mindfulness, almost like how people re-enact the civil war battles. But I would guess largely highly saturated connectedness becomes who we are, in spite of a vocal minority who long for a different way of living.
      - 0xBA5ED 9y ago
        Of course this depends. There's no guarantee people growing up in a hyper-connected world will fully embrace every aspect. It only takes a festering distaste in enough individuals plus a unifying voice to trigger a backlash.
vitro 9y ago
Meditate as much as you can. Being in the present moment lets you notice your thought patterns and impulses that you act on and puts you back in control. Art of letting go. You don't loose anything if you are not on a Facebook for a week. You don't loose anything by leaving your phone home for a day. Water still flows and birds still sing. When was the last time you saw the sun setting or felt the wind in your face, mind empty, being the sun and wind? When was the last time you really tasted your food? I am speaking to you! Just relax for a while, world will continue spinning without you thinking about it. We all are just a drops of water falling from the heron's beak.
- derblitzmann 9y ago
  I like your comment, but I gotta scratch my grammar Nazi itch. It's lose, not loose, unless you can tighten anything by having Facebook or your phone. But to add on to what you've said. Meditation is great can help you lose mundane, petty worries and live in the moment, as opposed to the could've beens.
  - jjeaff 9y ago
    > it's lose, not loose > It can help you lose mundane, petty worries So, you're saying you haven't been meditating enough?
- Lordarminius 9y ago
  The main problem with, and reason why I don't leave my phone at home, is fear of missing an emergency call.
  - mathgeek 9y ago
    Set all potential emergency numbers to be important. Set your phone to no interrupts except for those contacts. If your phone doesn't make a noise, don't touch it.
  - unicornporn 9y ago
    If you're not blue-light staff it does not seem like a rational fear. Smartphones has made us all control freaks. I think we need to practice giving up control.
ahartman00 9y ago
Ah, nostalgia. Its amazing how one can simultaneously forget the downsides, while amplifying the upsides. (Not to take away from the authors fond memories of course) I was just thinking recently about how great it was to be in high school. Few responsibilities, spent lots of time with friends, homework and work were easy. Of course, then I remember I couldnt live alone, had little money, homework and work seemed hard because I had nothing to compare it to, drama at school, etc. And try meeting up with flaky teenagers without a cell phone :P Of course, if you find yourself feeling stressed out by the connectedness, by all means take a break. You don't need to check email or be on slack all day. But at the same time, don't get too stressed out thinking we've lost something without gaining anything. You have the option to turn your phone off, you haven't lost anything. But it is now easier than ever to keep in touch, geography is even less relevant. Obligatory xkcd: "It is, unfortunately, one of the chief characteristics of modern business to always be in a hurry. In olden times it was different. - The Medical Record, 1884" https://xkcd.com/1227/ https://xkcd.com/1227/
- newfoundglory 9y ago
  I agree. I rolled my eyes pretty hard at this line: > Before we could Skype home and feel we’d done something meaningful. Those golden days where talking to people was so meaningful, not like today where people talk over a distance!
- aptwebapps 9y ago
  With respect to that xkcd, while there's some humor in the progression of the quotes about letter writing (which doesn't mean they're completely off target) and some of the other concerns seem to me narrow-minded or silly, I appreciate a lot of them and think they have aged just fine.
- rdiddly 9y ago
  That xkcd affirms that our sense of time and attention, and of quality and quantity, has been messed up like this since the Industrial Revolution. I can't safely presume what Randall's point is, but if it's to show that this is a foolish thing men have been saying without cause since time immemorial, he needs to go back further. Show me someone from 1600 complaining about the fast pace of life and I might buy it. But showing quotes about industrialization, that were written after industrialization, doesn't exactly blow my mind.
jmadsen 9y ago
A very nice read. I found it ironic that the corner of the last paragraph was obscured by an "Up Next" pop-open, ready to push me on to the next thing before I'd even had a moment to digest it.
nostrademons 9y ago
Interesting to compare this to the wave of nostalgia for our agrarian past that hit during the 1930s and 40s, leading to novels like Lord of the Rings, the Chronicles of Narnia, and The Grapes of Wrath. The past that the author yearns for was the future of those writers. That nostalgia didn't stop the clock from moving forward or life from getting ever more hectic and complicated. But there seems to be something deep inside our psyches that yearns for "the village": a place where the rules are known, the people can be trusted, and time can be spent rather than hoarded.
- shubhamjain 9y ago
  I think we have a tendency to see our past, and our childhood, in more positive light than it actually was. We tend to remember the good moments while easily forget the troubles. That explains why we find these nostalgic write-ups so relatable. What is bombardment of content is also assortment of people's experiences to learn from. The service that make you lazy also help you avoid chores to focus on other things. Thinking retrospectively, I think I more happy today than I was in the past. The Internet noise that we deplore has helped me immensely to discover what I like doing. Sure, it's stressful at times, but given a choice between then and now, I think my choice would always be the latter.
- Applejinx 9y ago
  As thinking animals we naturally seek or create that for ourselves. Nothing surprising about it. When we behave as though 'more hectic and complicated' is our purpose, we're effectively lying to ourselves and making erroneous claims about our capacities.
- CrystalLangUser 9y ago
  You can see this manifest itself in games too. Stardew Valley became extraordinarily popular. It's just a game where you explicitly give up your corporate cubicle job to take over your grandfather's farm in a small village town. It's such a peaceful game but there's a strong yearning for what you mentioned in it. The game was also a one person project over 4-5 years which is pretty inspiring, too.
stevewillows 9y ago
I loved this piece. It took me back to a day when I was about eight or so and my friends were all playing 'bases' in this local wooded area with a ravine. Some of us would hide for what felt like ages in hopes of catching a clean route to 'free our prisoners' from the other team's base. About twelve years ago or so I was living in this condo that had really noisy neighbors. One screaming baby on the left, and an enthusiastic Pantera fan on the right. The folks on the right, when not listening to Pantera, were constantly yelling right near the wall... or so it felt. This was the first time I really discovered the joy of earplugs. A year or so later I got my first pair of industrial ear protection. They cut out about 20 - 30db (or something like that), and it was just enough to allow myself to be alone in an otherwise busy space. Years later I still value regular periods of silence. These days I still have a pair of industrial ear protection, but I mostly use decent earplugs [1]. Another aspect of seeking silence is to completely (or almost completely) eliminate notifications. For those of us with ADHD, meditation is fantastic, but it does take time. The love for silence didn't happen right away. It took me quite a while to be able to shut my mind up. In the early 00s I went through these psychoneurophysiology sessions to help learn to focus, in hopes of eliminating the negative aspects of ADHD. One part of the 'training' was to have sensors on my ears and one on my head. While I tried to focus, the machine would measure my brainwaves... anyway, once I hit 'the zone', the cute hot air balloon would float up and over the silo. Tapping into this 'zone' really helped me break away from the constant chatter of my surroundings and my brain. Like some, I do love the romance that comes with a lo-fi world. Silence, space, and peace are special. In the same, I really appreciate some aspects of the technology we've been blessed with. it all comes down to finding your off switch so these things can become special again. [1] the earplugs I'm using - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00RM6Q9XW https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00RM6Q9XW
Ari_Ugwu 9y ago
This is fine, but I tire of the obscure titles and needlessly leading writing styles. I often spend the first few paragraphs desperate for an abstract or any hint as to what I'm reading. Only in the end for it to be more exposition than idea. Click bait by another name. My kingdom for an abstract.
- Wohlf 9y ago
  I often see this from writers trying to mimic much better ones. If they had the skill to pull off this writing style, you probably wouldn't be complaining.

228 points by kuroshit 9y ago

A truly masterfully written article that makes us yearn for the days now past when everything, both inside and outside of ourselves, was much quieter. The amount of noise today is unprecedented. I am reminded of the movie _Her_ in which one sees a world where technology can move into the background and augment human relationships. Granted, there are moments in that film when the tech hurts instead of hinders, but compare that to today's world where everything has the "in your face" mentality.

mooreds 9y ago
If you want to read a really scary prescient fiction book in this vein, check out Feed by M.T. Anderson. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_(Anderson_novel) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_(Anderson_novel) Just chilling.
- stephth 9y ago
  The plot context overview on Wikipedia is chilling just by itself...
- Hextinium 9y ago
  I highly recommend this book to anyone because it creates a framework for understanding the world from someone who is addicted to social media. It takes the current state of affairs to their conclusions in a rather well made way.
- purplerabbit 9y ago
  Super glad to see this book getting some love. It's horribly good... Ignore the YAF branding and read it as a novella if you're interested.

thestepafter 9y ago

This article brought on more sadness than I thought it would. As I have grown older and remember times like the one the author described I miss the quiet and peace of an unconnected world. It is a pity that younger generations will never know the this feeling unless it is forced. The freedom of being quiet is sadly lost to the past.

torpfactory 9y ago
I think that in the future there may be a distinct division between people who have control of their own attention and connectedness and those who don’t. I already see a division between some people I work with - noses buried in their phones all day, and those who tune it out and get real, deep thinking work done.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- kristineberth 9y ago
  I have a sneaking suspicion that in the not-too-distant future there will be a very significant cultural backlash against all of this noise, all of this hyper-connectedness.
  - fiatpandas 9y ago
    Could you elaborate on your thinking here? My prediction would be gradually the hyper connectedness becomes the norm while the last generations who remember “quiet” die. Of course there would likely always be small fractions of the population who look to the past and practice mindfulness, almost like how people re-enact the civil war battles. But I would guess largely highly saturated connectedness becomes who we are, in spite of a vocal minority who long for a different way of living.
    - 0xBA5ED 9y ago
      Of course this depends. There's no guarantee people growing up in a hyper-connected world will fully embrace every aspect. It only takes a festering distaste in enough individuals plus a unifying voice to trigger a backlash.

vitro 9y ago

Meditate as much as you can. Being in the present moment lets you notice your thought patterns and impulses that you act on and puts you back in control. Art of letting go. You don't loose anything if you are not on a Facebook for a week. You don't loose anything by leaving your phone home for a day. Water still flows and birds still sing. When was the last time you saw the sun setting or felt the wind in your face, mind empty, being the sun and wind? When was the last time you really tasted your food? I am speaking to you! Just relax for a while, world will continue spinning without you thinking about it. We all are just a drops of water falling from the heron's beak.

derblitzmann 9y ago
I like your comment, but I gotta scratch my grammar Nazi itch. It's lose, not loose, unless you can tighten anything by having Facebook or your phone. But to add on to what you've said. Meditation is great can help you lose mundane, petty worries and live in the moment, as opposed to the could've beens.
- jjeaff 9y ago
  > it's lose, not loose > It can help you lose mundane, petty worries So, you're saying you haven't been meditating enough?
Lordarminius 9y ago
The main problem with, and reason why I don't leave my phone at home, is fear of missing an emergency call.
- mathgeek 9y ago
  Set all potential emergency numbers to be important. Set your phone to no interrupts except for those contacts. If your phone doesn't make a noise, don't touch it.
- unicornporn 9y ago
  If you're not blue-light staff it does not seem like a rational fear. Smartphones has made us all control freaks. I think we need to practice giving up control.

ahartman00 9y ago

Ah, nostalgia. Its amazing how one can simultaneously forget the downsides, while amplifying the upsides. (Not to take away from the authors fond memories of course) I was just thinking recently about how great it was to be in high school. Few responsibilities, spent lots of time with friends, homework and work were easy. Of course, then I remember I couldnt live alone, had little money, homework and work seemed hard because I had nothing to compare it to, drama at school, etc. And try meeting up with flaky teenagers without a cell phone :P Of course, if you find yourself feeling stressed out by the connectedness, by all means take a break. You don't need to check email or be on slack all day. But at the same time, don't get too stressed out thinking we've lost something without gaining anything. You have the option to turn your phone off, you haven't lost anything. But it is now easier than ever to keep in touch, geography is even less relevant. Obligatory xkcd: "It is, unfortunately, one of the chief characteristics of modern business to always be in a hurry. In olden times it was different. - The Medical Record, 1884" https://xkcd.com/1227/ https://xkcd.com/1227/

newfoundglory 9y ago
I agree. I rolled my eyes pretty hard at this line: > Before we could Skype home and feel we’d done something meaningful. Those golden days where talking to people was so meaningful, not like today where people talk over a distance!
aptwebapps 9y ago
With respect to that xkcd, while there's some humor in the progression of the quotes about letter writing (which doesn't mean they're completely off target) and some of the other concerns seem to me narrow-minded or silly, I appreciate a lot of them and think they have aged just fine.
rdiddly 9y ago
That xkcd affirms that our sense of time and attention, and of quality and quantity, has been messed up like this since the Industrial Revolution. I can't safely presume what Randall's point is, but if it's to show that this is a foolish thing men have been saying without cause since time immemorial, he needs to go back further. Show me someone from 1600 complaining about the fast pace of life and I might buy it. But showing quotes about industrialization, that were written after industrialization, doesn't exactly blow my mind.

jmadsen 9y ago

A very nice read. I found it ironic that the corner of the last paragraph was obscured by an "Up Next" pop-open, ready to push me on to the next thing before I'd even had a moment to digest it.

nostrademons 9y ago

Interesting to compare this to the wave of nostalgia for our agrarian past that hit during the 1930s and 40s, leading to novels like Lord of the Rings, the Chronicles of Narnia, and The Grapes of Wrath. The past that the author yearns for was the future of those writers. That nostalgia didn't stop the clock from moving forward or life from getting ever more hectic and complicated. But there seems to be something deep inside our psyches that yearns for "the village": a place where the rules are known, the people can be trusted, and time can be spent rather than hoarded.

shubhamjain 9y ago
I think we have a tendency to see our past, and our childhood, in more positive light than it actually was. We tend to remember the good moments while easily forget the troubles. That explains why we find these nostalgic write-ups so relatable. What is bombardment of content is also assortment of people's experiences to learn from. The service that make you lazy also help you avoid chores to focus on other things. Thinking retrospectively, I think I more happy today than I was in the past. The Internet noise that we deplore has helped me immensely to discover what I like doing. Sure, it's stressful at times, but given a choice between then and now, I think my choice would always be the latter.
Applejinx 9y ago
As thinking animals we naturally seek or create that for ourselves. Nothing surprising about it. When we behave as though 'more hectic and complicated' is our purpose, we're effectively lying to ourselves and making erroneous claims about our capacities.
CrystalLangUser 9y ago
You can see this manifest itself in games too. Stardew Valley became extraordinarily popular. It's just a game where you explicitly give up your corporate cubicle job to take over your grandfather's farm in a small village town. It's such a peaceful game but there's a strong yearning for what you mentioned in it. The game was also a one person project over 4-5 years which is pretty inspiring, too.

stevewillows 9y ago

I loved this piece. It took me back to a day when I was about eight or so and my friends were all playing 'bases' in this local wooded area with a ravine. Some of us would hide for what felt like ages in hopes of catching a clean route to 'free our prisoners' from the other team's base. About twelve years ago or so I was living in this condo that had really noisy neighbors. One screaming baby on the left, and an enthusiastic Pantera fan on the right. The folks on the right, when not listening to Pantera, were constantly yelling right near the wall... or so it felt. This was the first time I really discovered the joy of earplugs. A year or so later I got my first pair of industrial ear protection. They cut out about 20 - 30db (or something like that), and it was just enough to allow myself to be alone in an otherwise busy space. Years later I still value regular periods of silence. These days I still have a pair of industrial ear protection, but I mostly use decent earplugs [1]. Another aspect of seeking silence is to completely (or almost completely) eliminate notifications. For those of us with ADHD, meditation is fantastic, but it does take time. The love for silence didn't happen right away. It took me quite a while to be able to shut my mind up. In the early 00s I went through these psychoneurophysiology sessions to help learn to focus, in hopes of eliminating the negative aspects of ADHD. One part of the 'training' was to have sensors on my ears and one on my head. While I tried to focus, the machine would measure my brainwaves... anyway, once I hit 'the zone', the cute hot air balloon would float up and over the silo. Tapping into this 'zone' really helped me break away from the constant chatter of my surroundings and my brain. Like some, I do love the romance that comes with a lo-fi world. Silence, space, and peace are special. In the same, I really appreciate some aspects of the technology we've been blessed with. it all comes down to finding your off switch so these things can become special again. [1] the earplugs I'm using - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00RM6Q9XW https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00RM6Q9XW

Ari_Ugwu 9y ago

This is fine, but I tire of the obscure titles and needlessly leading writing styles. I often spend the first few paragraphs desperate for an abstract or any hint as to what I'm reading. Only in the end for it to be more exposition than idea. Click bait by another name. My kingdom for an abstract.

Wohlf 9y ago
I often see this from writers trying to mimic much better ones. If they had the skill to pull off this writing style, you probably wouldn't be complaining.