When did we collectively start turning off the sound on our phones? I remember back in the day, being on a train or in any public space, hearing all kinds of bleeps, ringing and tunes. At some point people even started choosing custom ringtones for important contacts. ‘Mom’ had her own recognizable ringtone or song that made sure you always answered that call. Slowly, one beep at a time, we started muting those sounds. And soon it almost completely quieted down.
But why?
For one, in the early days of cellphones there was only so much happening. Either you got a call or you received a text message. That’s it.
Over time the amount of notifications you could possibly receive became endless. We entered a time of whatsapp messages, iphone alerts, voicenotes, software updates, instagram live notifications, news-alerts, etc.
But that’s not the whole truth. It’s not because our phones got too loud that we started turning the sounds off. Those sounds had a function, they were there to tell us: pay attention, someone has a message for you or is trying to reach you. And so we reached for it in our bag, coat or trousers and looked at what the screen said: ‘mom calling’ or ‘new message’. And we would do what we needed to do.
Today we don’t need whistles and bells to get us to look anymore, because we are already looking.
We don’t need the ringtones to start reaching in our coat, because the phone is already in our hands. We don’t need any of it, because we are already doing what we ‘need to do’.
Us collectively turning off the sounds on our phones on a surface level seems like a good thing. The polite thing to do. But it’s actually not. The bleeps might have quieted down, but in our heads it became hella loud.
Overwhelm, overstimulation and anxiety being only a few of the side effects.
Our preoccupation with our phones is not only an addiction but a silent addiction. We turned the phone on mute while slowly allowing ourselves to be filled up with a lot of loud noise and chatter. The phone-people have become so effective in making us do what we ‘need to do’ that they don’t even need the noise anymore.
But hear this. When we reduce our phone-use to the bare-necessities it doesn’t actually matter if the sound is on. Today when I get a call or an incoming text message I always know it’s important. And the rest of the time it’s not demanding my attention. I rather have those one or two important messages or calls go off loud than to have the phone penetrate my brain and heart silently.
Are you ready to go loud, as JLo once said?
Rachida –