Can you hear something “Beeping”

Can you hear something “Beeping”

It seems I am somewhat sensitive to things beeping and was wondering if it was just me of if it was something everyone suffered from. The electric clock behind me has just “beeped” o’clock not sure which o’clock but it has just turned something.
My Pc beeps at me all the time either letting me know I have new mail or that it has blocked a popup or I have done some illegal activity. My phone beeps to let me know it has a message or a text it also vibrates but that only creates a sound if it is on a hard surface. The cooker bleeped at me the other day when I took the lid off the pan cooking rice and put it down on the surface, “I don’t think you want to do that Steve” my brain heard it say in that wierd HAL like voice. In reality it was just saying “ouch that was hot”.

Over Christmas whilst on our recent epic voyage around the UK there was beeping abound. From smoke detectors through microwaves, dish washers, cookers reaching temperature or ending set times, washing machines, household timers, reversing cars and even the car we were driving would bleep when the temperature reached 4 degrees (no idea why 4 degrees but it did). There are also the video games which bleep constantly telling us to stop doing that or sometimes (rarely) saying well done.

There seems to be a semi Pavlovian (Google Pavlov) response to these sounds from joy that something is done, concern if it is not finished at an appropriate time or even fear if it is unexpected. We jump to respond to these stimuli with a level of involuntary activity which I think we have little control over. Are we training ourselves to respond and are our lives now driven by the beeps or are we ultimately still in control. We jump to respond without thinking is my view. My Pc has just beeped to tell me I have new mail which I am going to resist reading until I finish this (well maybe).

Each beep is vying for our attention “pick me, pick me, me first, no me please” they are telling us all trying to outdo each other to be dealt with. I think of them like the seagulls in Finding Nemo all calling “mine, mine, mine, mine, mine” which I found amusing. Do you think they feel smug if you pick them first or sulk if you don’t? Do you think they secretly get together when we are asleep and organize the rota ?

I am not sure if we could retrain ourselves to not respond to these interruptions. How long could you ignore the dish washer telling you its finished (in my case I can set it to take up to 4 hours but that’s a different problem). Now of course the reality is that the dishes are safe and clean and not going anywhere so unless you have limited crockery and are waiting to dish out dinner there is actually no need to rush to decant the items so what’s the big deal. The same goes for the microwave, you are unlikely to be eating what every was in there unless you have an asbestos lined mouth as it is still actually cooking for a while after it stops. This is why they say leave it for a few minutes so why not just reset the bleep to activate 3 minutes later or is that to simple.
(Still not read that email)

I think in the old day’s church bells and clocks were the only things making noises and these were time related so it told us it was time to start or stop things. These days they are activity based beeps telling us something has happened so they cross over into a different area. They are telling us we need to do something and irrespective of when the bleep goes off we respond even to the point if interrupting what ever important thing we are actualy doing. Hands up those who actually set one of these appliances off so it finishes at a particular time or are you like me sat with my coat on waiting 20 minutes for the washer to tell me it is time to go out. you see the beeping is actually an irritation to the routine nobody sets their appliances to complete something when it is convenient for them you allow the Beeps to dictate when things happen.

 Now some of these things are essential like the smoke alarm and probably the cooker unless you like your roast well done but perhaps some of them have delusions of grandeur where they “think” they are important but in reality they are just bit players in the grand scheme of things. Maybe if we read the manuals we could turn off the sound (need to find the booklet for that clock) or maybe just maybe we could learn to ignore them. What do you think do you have the will power ?

going to wait another 30 minutes to read that email, maybe go and have a cup of coffee the kettle has just clicked to let me know it is boiled. (are clicks the new beep?)