Can You Handle Silence

[nailit]

I find complete silence unnerving.
Always got to have the radio on or some youtube music vid or the such like when I'm on my own. Even if I'm reading I have to have some background. Obviously different if I have friends around and have some 'real' company but as soon as they are gone the radio goes on. I don't have a tv which most people always seem to have on in the background somewhere.
What is it about silence that we don't like (or perhaps you do)
Thanks.

[waterboatman]

I can understand that nailit.

Wouldn't life be boring if we were all the same!

[campbellking]

Live alone and love silence. Get really irritated when on trains by people who are sitting really close to each other but still insist on shouting to get their point across.

[Gill1941]

I love silence. Agree with Naomi the tv is only on for something I really want to watch. Lovely and quiet here. Great to sit in back garden.
I have pulsating tinnitus (a constant whooshing) but better that than other noises.

[Barmaid]

I love silence. Here it is so peaceful and the only thing you could hear was birdsong (until Mr bm set up his fish tank grrrr so that chunters away all day) But at night you can't hear a thing which is brilliant.

[cassa333]

In my life there is no such thing as silence. There is no such thing as darkness.

The reason is 1. I have tinnitus and 2. I have phenffff something I can never remember the name of but the light receptors in my eyes constantly fire so when I have my eyes closed (even in a totally black dark room) there is light.

And because I have Aphantasia I can't block either out with imagination.

I really would like to know what dark and quiet is like. I think it could be interesting.

[Cloverjo]

That's interesting, cassa. Aphantasia. I think my son must have that.
I once asked him what he visualised when reading books, and he looked at me as if I was mad. He said he can't imagine anything. I thought it strange, but perhaps it's fairly common.

[hereIam]

No, can't stand the silence, I either have the radio or the TV on in the background all the time ...

[andy-hughes]

Intereswting split, as we would expect, but a disturbing number of people who tinnitus, which must be horrendous.

I enjoy any media if I am listening specifically, but I love silence as well.

I have to have silence when I write, but other writers I know love music blasting away.

Stephen King always has his local radio station on playing loud rock music while he writes. He was most distressed a few years ago when new owners changed the format to 'smooth' which he hated.

Of course, being in the position of a multi-millionaire, he simply bought the radio station, and changed the format back to what he liked!

[RobNorth]

Not many generations ago the whole world was relatively silent and only about three generations have been subject to lengthy periods of amplified sound. Maybe that's why there seems to be a lot of tinnitus about

[nailit]

//Of course, being in the position of a multi-millionaire, he simply bought the radio station, and changed the format back to what he liked!//
LOL, love it...

[chrissa1]

I live alone and couldn’t sit in a silent house. Even in bed, I have the tv on with ITV3 on showing old programmes while I read my book.

Why should I sit in silence just because I live alone?

[nailit]

But just what is it chrissa thats unnerving about silence?
That's what I'm trying to understand. I NEED silence in the mornings, I find it peaceful to start the day with quietness but nights can be horrible.

[Zacs-Master]

Motörhead, Thin Lizzy and the like have seen to it that I never have total silence.

[KARL]

I have no problem with silence and in fact the way many people (Brits in particular) are unnerved by silence to the point where, in company and if nobody is talking, they find it necessary to say something, anything, which leads to the most awfully banal attempts at conversation - noise for its sake. That I could happily do without.

[chrissa1]

I find that it gives me something else to do while I do my crossword or am on AB. I couldn’t do anything in complete silence.

That’s me when I’m at home though. I try and walk a lot and find pleasure in there just being me while I’m alone.

The house? A different matter altogether.