Noise Pollution

As I walked to work on Friday, I noticed that about half the people I passed had earphones in. The other half, it seemed, were talking on their cells. When I get home, I can always tell before I finish climbing the stairs to our apartment if my roommate is back yet, since she inevitably the TV on. I say I like to run to clear my mind, but I get bored after a few minutes without my iPod. Do we ever have the peace and quiet to think anymore?

In one of my psych classes in college, I read a study about how people concentrate. The most outgoing people concentrate better with mild background noise, the authors found, while more introverted folks worked better in silent environments. The researchers attributed this to the differnces in poeple's ideal excitement levels. Extroverts function best with higher levels of stimulation, while the opposite is true for the shy bunch.

I would place myself right in the middle of the introvert/extrovert spectrum. I definitely prefer silence when I'm writing papers. Or my blog. I can't stand when my coworkers send me on errands or ask me to process forms for them when I'm trying to write a new entry. Reading, though, is a different story. In sixth grade, I once mumbled "Just a sec" to my teacher when she tried to interrupt me from The Hobbit to ask me to answer a math problem on the board. Two days ago, the cashier at Au Bon Pain had to tap my shoulder to remove my from Kate Atkinson's latest mystery to let me know I needed to exit the premises - because the fire alarm was going off. Whether that proves that I belong in the mixed intro/extrovert category, or I just can't process two things at once, I'm not sure.

On a more serious note, however, society is getting louder. People are constantly talking, even when alone, thanks to cell phones. Car alarms go off for hours. (Don't you always hope, deep down, that their car does indeed get stolen, after all that noise?) Cubicles don't really block out much noise, so phone conversations reverberate throughout the office vicinity.

Maybe we're all used to so much stimulation that silence for any extended period of time makes us panic that we're wasting time. For the first moment out of the office, I am thrilled to hear nothing. By the time I've walked past the second traffic light, though, I am reaching for my phone so I can catch up on calls as I walk home.

I might be thinking deep thoughts as I ride the metro if I couldn't always hear leaking music from someone's earphones. I might have figured out what I want to do about my lame job if I spent my walk home considering what's important to me, not immediately calling friends to plan the night's activities. I'd probably figure out a better ending to this blog post if my roommate hadn't started playing music in her room. I guess if I need to think today, I will just go for a run. With my iPod.