I see how it’s easy to agree with this article since everyone has experienced being annoyed by excessive noise, but I do question whether or not the jury is really out on excessive noise causing heart disease, anxiety, etc. As the article also mentioned, silence is a luxury that costs a lot. Since the amount of disruptive noise one experiences on a daily basis is probably exactly correlated with one’s wealth, it seems like this take is very likely inventing a causal link from noise to health when its equally plausible that noise is just another thing that less wealthy people have to put up with (along with worse health).
Noise is all around us
81–90 of 169 posts
Re: Noise is all around us
#82I don't know if you city people realize it, but birdsong in cities is freaking nuts. I can barely hear myself think in many cities now, from all the birds. I live out in the country, and I don't get anywhere near as much of a cacophany of birdsong as I hear in backyards in Philly and Baltimore inner-city neighborhoods. Take a hike some time and stand still and record the birdsong, and then go into a neighborhood with…
Are they trying to out-chirp the cars?
I think there are just a lot more birds in cities than in the country because cities are where all the easy food is.
Re: Noise is all around us
#83I'm always surprised that we tolerate so much unnecessary noise. We let people fly helicopters around and run leaf blowers. We even allow trucks to go beep beep beep and alert everyone within a kilometer that they are backing up, even though we have rearview cameras, like it's everyone else's responsibility to scurry out of their way.
Just wait until the Amazon drone delivery service starts to roll out. You'll have drones humming along all day long. It'll be advertised as a "benefit" in your new neighborhood—buy the house, your address is eligible for drone deliveries! Or you have to pay a little extra in your HOA for the "luxury" of having your Amazon orders delivered in 30 minutes.
Good use of AI: detect delivery drone, fire Nerf sentry guns to eliminate noise.
Re: Noise is all around us
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone with tinnitus and hyperacusis I think about this often. A bus or truck dumping its air brakes right next to you, incredibly loud sirens, squeaky breaks that pierce the soul. I feel fairly certain you could make the case that many sounds we have grown to just accept in society are in fact at dangerous decibel levels.
There are ordinary household activities that reach dangerous decibel levels too. Stacking ceramic dishes, slamming the toilet seat, vacuuming in a tight space, etc. You will actually find that doing every day chores is much more pleasurable with hearing protection.
We have no glass, ceramic, steel, or marble-topped tables or furniture for this reason. Putting things down on them is super noisy, people tend to drop things on accident and the sound of a metal water bottle hitting a thick glass table is the worst. Even simple things: keys, phone, coffee mugs, your laptop. I feel silly typing this out, but the general noise level of day-to-day living went way down when we swapped the glass furniture for wood furniture throughout the whole house.
+1 to earplugs when vacuuming the car.
Re: Noise is all around us
#85I think of ambient silence as the most valuable sound of all. Think about what it'd cost you to get freedom from your neighbor's lawnmower, traffic, sirens, construction, dogs barking, and the rest of the mindless noise that involuntarily assaults the average person's brain all day. You might think you can move out to the country, but most of the homes you might buy still have plenty of it. Neighbors will have bigger…
The quietest place I've ever experienced is out on the ocean, after a calm, anchored on the great Bahamas bank. A stillness came over us as we shut the engine off and listened to the vast nothing.
I live on a boat in a river next to the botanic gardens. Such a quiet place. I am not sure I can move back on land. Cars. Lawn mowers. Ugh.
Re: Noise is all around us
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
More modern trucks use white noise instead of a beep anyway, it's both much easier to tell direction from a broad spectrum sound, and significantly less annoying at the same time.
I've never heard of a truck using white noise instead of a beep, but that might just be working as intended. Here's a video of what it sounds like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rwJ5NCf1Vw
The Amazon vans where I am all are white noise rather than beeping. It's still not great but it's better than the beep.
Re: Noise is all around us
#87My neighborhood has become too noisy because of cars with loud mufflers. They sound like Harley Davidson motorcycles. The motor cycles around here are loud too, I think they are modified also to be louder. I actually want to move to a quieter town. I think the cops and the local governments need to pay attention.
Right. Or the incredibly dumb and loud backfire packages they put on their exhaust. So many cars have them now around me. Thanks California. There should be regulation outlawing them. It sounds like gun fire all day.
Re: Noise is all around us
#88I'm always surprised that we tolerate so much unnecessary noise. We let people fly helicopters around and run leaf blowers. We even allow trucks to go beep beep beep and alert everyone within a kilometer that they are backing up, even though we have rearview cameras, like it's everyone else's responsibility to scurry out of their way.
Anything and everything is permissible in the name of safety.
Re: Noise is all around us
#89I think of ambient silence as the most valuable sound of all. Think about what it'd cost you to get freedom from your neighbor's lawnmower, traffic, sirens, construction, dogs barking, and the rest of the mindless noise that involuntarily assaults the average person's brain all day. You might think you can move out to the country, but most of the homes you might buy still have plenty of it. Neighbors will have bigger…
Rural living can be noisier than the suburbs. It depends on density, agriculture type, presence of commercial activity, etc. Where noise ordinances exist, they are generally more lenient outside city limits. In the USA, getting action against a noise nuisance is extremely difficult. The quietest living experience I've had over the past decade has been a modern high-rise apartment in Korea. Between-unit noise insulati…
Yep. The country seems nice and quiet until your neighbor decides to have a drunken ATV party with music. (This is, unfortunately, not a theoretical occurrence for me).
Re: Noise is all around us
#90I think of ambient silence as the most valuable sound of all. Think about what it'd cost you to get freedom from your neighbor's lawnmower, traffic, sirens, construction, dogs barking, and the rest of the mindless noise that involuntarily assaults the average person's brain all day. You might think you can move out to the country, but most of the homes you might buy still have plenty of it. Neighbors will have bigger…
Rural living can be noisier than the suburbs. It depends on density, agriculture type, presence of commercial activity, etc. Where noise ordinances exist, they are generally more lenient outside city limits. In the USA, getting action against a noise nuisance is extremely difficult. The quietest living experience I've had over the past decade has been a modern high-rise apartment in Korea. Between-unit noise insulati…
Yeah I had a level 17 inner city apartment and I’d hear literally nothing from my bedroom. It was often too quiet