The concept of noise pollution is hardly a new one, but we’ve yet to explore it here. Especially true for people living in highly urbanized areas, the noises that fill our day have had a desensitizing effect on the masses. Safety systems based on sounds are everywhere and have been most effective at training people to tune them out. Today’s question comes from Hooniverse’s MadScience:
There are a number of alerts or warnings that are being re-done because they’re so ubiquitous that we’re completely numb to them. Trucks are now required to honk before and while backing up because no one listens to back up beepers. Motorcycles now need headlight blinkers because everyone’s got their lights on already.
When was the last time a car alarm actually caused you to do anything but wish death upon its owner?
["User Input" is the AtomicToasters Question of the Day™ asking you, the teeming millions, to answer our pressing questions.]
There is a lady that drives to our warehouse 3 times a week, and sells breakfast tacos and tamales. She honks 3 or 4 times as she circles the warehouse to let everyone know that its time for deliciousness.
No matter what the noise is, it will always fall into the background due to the ubiquity of lights and noises extant in our society. We are so inundated by technology as to have become deafened by it. The human brain looks to narrow down stimuli to only those things that are truly needing attention. The more stimuli we add as a society, the less we pay attention to it.
All this technology, for all of it’s blessings, is also a curse. It’s a trap, really. We can’t live without it but we can’t possibly use it all to maximum effectiveness without sacrificing some other part of our consciousness because of our limited ability to juggle stimuli. In large part we are sacrificing our humanity to the gods of productivity. People no longer interact as much on a personal level. They stay in contact with social networks and texting so that they can juggle relationships with productivity. This has led to a loss of empathy in younger generations that have grown up submersed in our technological culture. You have to ask yourself then if technology is our master or if we are becoming it’s slave?
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At this rate there will need to be yet another warning alarm for headphone wearing vegetables.
I've never been a fan of mashed turnips. My mom makes them every year for Christmas, and everyone raves about how delicious they are, and I think they're rather repulsive. I just can't see the appeal.
She puts peanut butter in the mashed turnips, doesn't she?
I just threw up in my mouth a little.
It's got raisins in it. You like raisins.
Nobody likes raisins. They're like cheap Chinese knockoffs of chocolate chips.
Is there anything that you actually like?
He likes Scotch, and Volkswagens.
Actually I'm not a huge fan of scotch.
…Heresy. Also, this.
Actually, I'd dispense with truck back-up alarms, 'helpful' computer sound effects, and elevator bings entirely. I tend to notice the direction of a truck's travel, whether or not I've just connected another monitor, and if I am still trying to load plywood with the doors over-riding the hold button.
By actively engaging my world, I eliminate the need for artificial auditory feedback.
Death to ringtones and their users.
Having worked in large warehouses filled with forklifts as well as myriad construction sites, I can see the need for backup beepers. Sometimes it's hard for operators to see what's directly behind, and in a noisy environment with all sorts of distractions, it's a little hard to realize that something big and dangerous is approaching. It does, however, get to the point where I'd be dreaming beeper sounds in my sleep.
For five years I lived right next door to a municipal fire/police station. Annoying at first, but after a while I'd learn to sleep through screaming sirens. I'm glad my building never caught on fire…
I've learned to put up with the computer sounds – especially Windows "yes-you-just-plugged-something-in" sound. It seemed ridiculous at first but then I realized that just because *I* know I just plugged something in, that didn't always mean Windows knew it. Now the little dumbfuck makes a 'yay' noise to let you know he feels like cooperating today.
Maybe that's why I don't like them that much. I would prefer to overpower the potatoes with gravy until they scream for mercy.
Carrots+Turnips+Velveeta+Mashed=Delicious
Car Bumper+Velveeta=Delicious.
I think all these warnings are trying to override natural selection. Based on what I see on the roads, we could use a little more natural selection.
A little more, or a grip tonne more? Methinks the latter.
In answer to the question, the last time a car alarm didn't make me wish harm upon its owner was wayyyyy back when they had the viper talking alarm, because they were new and amusing with their "please step away from the vehicle" talk.
AstroStart makes me wish the most harm these days. I have neighbors who will keep their car running for hours, 15 minutes at a time, by remotely restarting the car as many times as "needed". And some installations will honk the darn horn each time.
Meanwhile I use my block heater plugged into a timer, it takes me 30 extra seconds to unplug in the morning, it doesn't burn any extra gasoline and I have warmth out of the vents by the time I get to the 2nd stoplight.
I like leek in my mashed potatoes, I'll have to try a turnip, thanks.
The remote lock function on Randy's Sportage blips the horn to acknowledge, and we dislike it so much (it is not "optional") we are sure to use the central locking as we exit the vehicle, thus avoiding getting horny in the parking lot.
I hate anything that beeps at me, including my computer. Most sounds are disabled. Car alarms are the worst thing in the urban world. I grew to hate them with a passion when I managed parking garages. It seemed like there was always some asshat, usually with a BMW, that set the alarm so sensitive that it would go off whenever a car drove past it's parking stall, and we'd have to listen to it echoing through the garage. Here in Tombstone, car alarms have been set off on cars parked next to gunfight sets whenever someone touches off blank rounds through a shotgun. That's annoying, too. The alarm I mean, those of us who live here don't even notice the gunfire. The local horses don't even flinch.