Is it all just noise?

In this modern world of social media, are we just being swamped by others' noise? How do we keep our sense of sanity in all this?

There has been several hundred million years of evolution that has been about how to find the meaningful, despite the noise. Organic systems have evolved to be able to find food and avoid predators among all the noise. The spider that can ignore a gale buffeting its web, but detect the faint struggle of prey. The herd animal that can detect the scent of a lion, even though the stench of its herd is very strong. The sound of a friend calling our name in a busy, noisy, traffic-laden street.

As humans, we are supposedly the pinnacle of this evolution, but seem to have become so distracted by our own noise that we are drowning. Even if we all made meaningful noise, to most, whatever we said or wrote would be just be noise, but only because they have interests other than our own. Just as we have become reliant upon search engines to find meaningful information among all the noise of the internet, perhaps we have to learn to search our better being for what is really us, and thus identify ourselves better.

We cannot expect the world to be quiet just so we can find the centre of our being, though many have tried to isolate themselves. We have to learn to hear our centre above all the noise, and perhaps that process of elevating that centre in our consciousness helps us to be a better centre of light to others. The noise teaches us how to discriminate. How to identify what has real meaning among the superficial. A room full of philosophers would still sound like a cacophony, but when we engage in one conversation, it then has meaning, and all the others fade.

In all this, I am not saying we should all make more noise for its own sake, just so others can learn something, but make each of our conversations meaningful, so we are nourished, and others are nourished if they choose to partake. However, when someone seeks our attention and unwantedly interrupts what we are doing, then it is not just noise, but interference. Depending where we are, you can try to enforce our own space.

It is all a matter of your noise threshold as to what is reasonable to put up with. Some activities, such as meditation or deep thinking, may need a lower background noise to be productive, but expecting it all the time would be unreasonable. Earphones and music or white noise can help, as well as signaling to others that we don't want to be disturbed.