Our digitally interconnected world has become chock-full of manufactured noise. As I write this passage, I hear a clock ticking beside me, the wind rustling through the newly sprouted spring leaves, the distant hum of the road as cars and trucks drive by my home, birds chirping as they celebrate the rebirth of nature, the consistent tumble of the clothes dryer, and the clickity-clack of my laptop keystrokes. Most of these sounds are mostly pleasant, if not hypnotic. Some of the noises are natural. Others are completely manufactured from human products and systems.
I have the television turned on, but it is muted, as is my phone. It’s a relatively peaceful and quiet day, but the noise in my head is nagging and persistent. The noise cannot be audibly heard, yet it’s there. To be clear, I’m not hearing voices or other sounds within my head. I am, however, filtering and buffering a buildup of external nonsense that has formulated a frequency or sine wave of bundled thoughts bouncing around my brain. I’m attributing my inner thoughts as sound here because they represent and are producing, at least in my mind, unfiltered and excessive noise. If not monitored daily, thoughts can increase their frequencies and become noise. Our thoughts stem from all kinds of stimuli. Our hyperconnected digital society has, however, amplified the sheer number of external media and inputs that penetrate our conscious and even sub-conscious mind.
There is good noise and bad noise. The rhythmic sounds of nature, music, or even a loved one’s voice, all may be soothing. But nature, music, and the reverb of that loved one’s voice can also produce deafening noise to the brain under certain conditions. Some people find comfort in the industrial sounds of a large city. The chatter of people, thud of construction, wail of the siren, clank of the subway, hum of the building systems, and honk of the horns can feel as if they are being conducted, much like a symphony. Separate and single out any of these sounds, and they are quite annoying. Put them together, however, and there is a beat and a harmony that comes through. It’s strange and yet beautiful at the same time.
I’m referring to “noise” not only as an audible and heard input, but also as external media and inputs that engage our senses including what we see, taste, feel, and experience. While we may assign visual and audible elements to our digital society (i.e., watching screens), we are equally engaging our other senses as we do so. The “noise” or chatter that builds in our minds is not just a remnant of what we’ve heard, it is also heavily influenced by what we see, smell, feel, and interpret through our intuition.
Noise can be soft and low pitched; it can be loud and high pitched. Noise can be soothing; it can also be chaotic and confusing. Sight, sound, smell, and our other senses shape our thoughts and experiences; they also provide a medium for our interpretation of the world around and within us.
Speaking of noise, our 24-7 data-infused social media crazed society certainly has a lot to say. Or does it? Sometimes I catch myself scrolling social media, during the day, in the evening, in the morning and pull myself by the back of my neck out the slippery slope into the abyss only to ask, what was I doing? What was I searching for? What was I watching, reading, listening to? Was I conscious? Am I passively or actively engaged in content? And to what end? We are, if we choose to be, constantly bombarded by sounds and images curated by others and the rhetoric delivered by the media, politicians, and other personalities.
Our external world, that is the world that we allow to infiltrate our minds and consume our thoughts, is like taking a vitamin. A daily and measured dose is healthy to the body. However, if we infuse our minds and bodies with too many vitamins, they can build up in our system and be toxic to the liver, kidneys, and other critical organs. Given the advance of “everything digital” perhaps a daily dose of external media and input is necessary for us to serve as functioning members of society. Whereas people used to get a lot more information from newspapers and magazines, today, information flows more instantaneously into the palm of our hands. This said, not all information is good information. The advent of AI has promulgated ethical and moral issues including the propagation of misinformation, the use of deepfakes, among other privacy and personal data protection concerns.
Information today is conveyed much more visually than ever before. I remember, as a child, looking at pictures in the newspaper, reading the captions, and feeling connected to the story. With instantaneous communications and videos capturing life in real-time, today, we are part of the story. It’s a different world, and we must acknowledge that we have a choice on when, where, how, and why we choose to engage.
Much like the vitamin metaphor, tempering our intake of daily media may be part of a healthy regiment. When we overconsume, our heads can quickly be filled with noise. Although our minds are powerful, they are not meant to take on the mass inputs that we currently do through our digitally connected world. Our mental acuity and personal time were not meant to be fixated exclusively on data and screens, studying the beautifully curated lives and existence of others, or absorbing the pain bodies that lies within the ugliness of society. Thus, it pays to be aware of what “noises” you are choosing to let infiltrate your mind, body, and spirit – and assess what impact they have on your thoughts, your health, and your overall wellbeing.
When we limit unnecessary noise into our lives, we choose to be more present with what shapes us, our thoughts and intentions, and ultimately who we are. Take a moment to monitor the noise around you. Go beyond what you hear and examine what you see, smell, feel, and if possible, what your intuition and gut are telling you. Take a few deep breaths. Try your best to calm your breathing, relax, and sit with yourself for a moment of conscious self-awareness and observation. Take in, through your senses, all the good and bad noise.
Can you filter the noise? Are you mindful of your thoughts, breathing, and state of being? Practicing this as a daily routine can help build and condition your noise filtering function so that you can eliminate “nonsense noise” and feed your mind, body, and spirit with the appropriate dose of noise that provides clarity and focus to your life.
Try to maintain a consistent routine for noise awareness and filtering, and test out different techniques that work best for you. Recently, I stopped listening to the radio in my car when driving. I’ve found that by practicing noise filtering, I am more attuned to the pleasantries of the good noise that life has to offer. When we layer noise with noise our mind’s capacity to process (let alone live within) the moment becomes limited. Filtering our noise inputs enables us to center our mind and body in the now, enriching our conscious experience and ensuring that what we’re recording within our unconscious leads to a healthier state of self, including more productive thoughts, actions, and behaviors.
Now get out there and make some good noise...
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