Dear LPG, 

Have you ever realised that we live in a society where it is really hard not to hear background noise?  

It is quite worrying when you realise just how much so many of us would miss the background noises we are so used to and that most of us have never really experience true silence for any real length of time.  I think of myself as quite old now and I cannot remember a time when there was somewhere you could go to give your ears a complete rest from hearing.

There are the natural noises that are always around us.  In this day and age, even if you find yourself in the most remote part of the world there will be the wind and rustling of vegetation to keep you company, and even if you lock yourself in a room for a couple of minutes there is bound to be the click of an expanding water pipe to interrupt what you can hear.  In fact, I have a blind friend who tells me that she can hear the difference between being in the middle of a silent field and an echo hall even if there is no other background noise.  

When I really think about it, I hate the sound of silence and find it as worrying as the sound of a thunderstorm and many other distressing noises.  I admit to feeling exactly like CL who wrote about night noises earlier this year (►►►).

I openly admit to sleeping with the telly on all night and I know many people who do that or settle for the radio or a night light.  There is even a name for the fear of true silence, basically we are suffering from a degree of sedate phobia if we really fear the absence of any sound.

If we can hear, we are so used to noise, and many of our ears really miss some sort of audible stimulation even if it is only missing for a short time.  I suspect that many of us associate the sound of silence (or of soft, distant automatic or natural background noise) with the feeling of loneliness.   The youngsters spend large amounts of money on earphones so that they can have the music and sounds of their choice personally piped into their ears, there is always the sound of a car or washing machine or some other perfectly recognisable noise that we hardly even notice on the go and white noise is as common to the inside of a building as natural sounds are to the outside.  My idea of serious comforting ‘silence’ is a walk where I can hear a few birds singing and some outdoor running water passing.  In fact, I like to walk in my local park or by the Thames at London Bridge where my idea of peace is interrupted by tourist chatter, the sound of the river and so many other sounds.  But sadly, that represents as close as my ears want to get to the sound of serious silence. 

How about you? 

GG, Catford.

GG offers the online evidence she found…

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…and a video of as close to silence as she wants to get…

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