Incoming!
This battle cry could also sound appropriate for the barrage of ads and communications we receive. Our lives are polluted by the ‘incoming’ comms. Pretty much everywhere we go, we are under attack of some or other sollicitation. This is why the car or train can be such a reprieve. A friend of mine recently said that he managed to have the most uninterrupted conversations with his wife only while driving. In a train, there is a general tranquility that allows for bona fide catching up on reading and/or nodding off. On planes and trains, wifi connection is still quite a rarity (or excessively expensive). However, people are more or less considerate when it comes to public spaces. And, specifically, they have more or less regulated their devices with care. In quiet settings, this becomes more than a matter of courtesy. The first port of call should be the vibrate setting rather than the obnoxious ring tone. In today’s mobile world, whether it’s attending a conference or taking a train, the chances are that someone will forget to switch the sound off. But, as irritating as that mistake is, usually, the embarrassed user will immediately switch to the vibrate setting, and others in the environs follow suit. The next problem is handling a telephone call in a public space and whether the individual will politely decline talking out loud about his last night’s sortie or the finer details of an abstract business dispute. To say nothing of the indiscretion and confidentiality breaches, the issue is basic etiquette and the need to develop more consideration. {Click to tweet}
Incoming and Outgoing Messages…
The subject of this post, however, is about the sound effects related to incoming and outgoing communications.
For example, the whoosh of the outgoing email
or the outgoing text message (below):
…not to mention the variety of beeps indicating an incoming mail, rendered famous by AOL’s “You’ve got mail!” Then, there is the 
iPhone’s hiccough while recharging, when the connection is intermittently interrupted and a sound alerts that the charge is turning back on.
Interruptions galore
The other day, I was in a meeting with a top executive who owns an iPad, Blackberry and iPhone, each of which was displayed on the table during our meeting. Literally, every device was beeping as messages were being received, whether it was an email, a text message, a Facebook message or some “breaking news” news story. This is a tell-tale sign of someone who is a victim of new technologies. Sort of like the dog being wagged by the tail. On the Eurostar train, recently, there were four individuals (all men) sitting as a foursome (2×2) to my left and their devices were all going off in random orders, enough to drive any sane person crazy. They all seemed to “carry on” as if it were normal. Little do they know!
Curb thy noises
As a society, we need to get better at managing our devices and mastering our personal settings. The sounds need to be muted for two reasons.
- Having these little sound effects is a detriment to one’s attention span — We need to realize that brands and companies (including media companies) are trying to interrupt us. We should not be victims of their desires. We should “opt in” on our own schedule.
- In public places — or even in one-on-one meetings — the noises should be muted as a minimum decent common courtesy for others who do not have any interest in knowing your communication patterns!
When will our society integrate these reflexes into our fabric? Even as new devices continue to explode onto the market, we should all develop the habit to monitor/adjust our personal settings and respect others, if we are not interested in helping ourselves too! {Click to tweet}
Don’t you agree?
