One of the greatest inventions in all of remote control history has to be the mute button (narrowly winning out over the power button).
A few years ago, my wife and I decided to cut the cable and unsubscribe from any kind of packaged television service. Our little satellite dish sadly sits unused, perched next to the house as a reminder of what we’re not missing. For about a year, we didn’t watch anything but the occasional documentary or select film on Netflix. We got so used to not seeing commercials that when we happened to be watching television at a friend’s house and were subject to a whole series of them, it was quite jarring. For an ADD person, this was stimulus overload.
I think this is why I don’t enjoy televised sports events—there’s just so much noise. All. The. Time. Screaming crowds, obnoxiously shouting sports announcers, and commercials which take a cue from Spinal Tap and turn the volume up to eleven…
About a year ago, we decided to subscribe to Hulu, another streaming service that mainly offers up broadcast television programs a day after they air. It offers a decent variety of programs and is rather inexpensive, mainly because of commercial sponsors (usually it’s the same Geico or Cricket Wireless advertisement over and over again during the same program).
But with the commercials came frenetic, irritating noise…twenty-four month zero percent financing with approved credit; save fifteen percent or more by switching your car insurance; our credit card rewards program is awesome because Sam Jackson intimidatingly says so…noise, noise, noise.
Mute.
Ahh. The sound of silence. Although if I look at the screen, I am still the target of advertisers’ visual assaults, but there’s a freeing beauty found in those brief quiet moments after I push that wonderful little button. It’s like a momentary reprieve from the stimulation of whatever program has lured my attention.
It’s so important to consider using a kind of mute button in our daily lives.
As more and more things vie for our attention, and as we are inundated with so much distraction and noise, taking time to press that figurative mute button to enjoy a moment of silence is vital. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by life. Make time to simply tune out. Create moments of respite and recess that quiet the commotion of modern daily living. Even if your mute button looks something like locking yourself in a closet for three minutes, it’s essential that you do so.
And if you have opportunity to use that other button (the power button) to turn it all off for a while, do it. You may not save fifteen percent on your car insurance, but you’ll save more than that on your sanity.
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