Picking your soundscape
By Zachary Abel
The world if full of wonderful sounds, but as progress
continues these beautiful natural sounds are slowly being overrun by man made
sounds. The biggest proponent of this change has been cell phones, mp3 players,
and by extinction the internet. These tools have allowed people to create their
own personal soundscapes and escape the natural world by doing so. A big
question is what people fill their personal soundscape with and why that specific
thing. Michael Bull in his article "The Audio-Visual Ipod" establishes the Ipod as one of these tools to control one's soundscape; however he focuses mainly on music. This is a shallow understanding of what truly makes up peoples person soundscapes Many people fill their soundscape with music, but I want to focus on a thing
other than music such as: podcasts, audiobooks, YouTube, and television. The
last two of these things are often more associated as visual media, but by my
own personal use and several others I have discovered that many people do not
watch television instead they listen to it. A young woman I interviewed stated “When
I read, I like to have sitcoms in the background” She says she does this
because if it is to quiet when she reads then she starts to get really anxious
and out of the thirty-two people I interviewed thirty of them had this same
attitude when playing things in the background. However, most of these people listened
to things other than television when reading. The most common thing was YouTube
videos with fifteen out of the thirty watching youtubers such as Markiplier, The Super Beard Brothers, and Critical Role.
When asked why these channels most stated that it was the talking that brought about a soothing feeling. Markiplier is known for having a soothing voice and through most of his videos he talks in a relatively calm manner. It is not only his voice that is nice the fact that he is constantly talking to the audience makes one feel that they are apart of the video even if one is not actually watching it. The Super Beard Brothers are similar in that audience interaction and they are known for doing video game trivia while doing their videos. Finally Critical Role is mainly a Dungeons and Dragons channel. It is run by the dungeon master Mathew Mercer, who is an accomplished voice actor. In fact all the people who appear on Critical Role are voice actors. This brings in an outstanding voice performance that does not require one to watch to get involved. Critical Role even has a website dedicated to its best moments. These channels are all wonderful to watch, but above their visuals they all have a great audio component that allows people to feel involved. These channels also do not require that great a deal of focus to be able to follow what is going on so one can do many different activities while listening to these channels. The one thing these all have in common though is conversation. I believe that it is this conversation that helps sooth these people allowing them to focus more on the tasks they are trying to do whether that is reading, homework, or playing games. In fact, as I am writing this blog, I am listening to a YouTube video. The other fifteen is split with five with podcasts, ten with television using Netflix and Hulu as their primary medius. All interviewed people had at least listened to on audiobook. The reason audiobooks have been so big is because the website audible allows audiobooks to be so accessible.
The world is very chaotic and there are very little people can control, but one thing we can control is often what we hear. I feel that it is this control over our sonic environments that pushes people to listen to these things when doing activities. Now because of the internet people have an even finer control of what they can listen to before now most people where stuck listening to music, but now people can listen to whatever they want. Driving for example used to be dominated by the radio and it is talk shows and music. Now from the interviews I have collected I believe that podcasts and audiobooks are slowly becoming the preferable form of sonic control when driving. Twenty-three of the interviewed people have stated that because they are so busy with work and school that they no longer read, but only listen to audiobooks while driving or when doing menial tasks such as emptying the dishwasher. In this case like the previous case this is once again talking becoming the main way people can control their anxiety. I believe this has a strong connection to personal upbringing, because out of the thirty-two people asked thirty of them grew up in loud households whether they had lots of siblings or just talkative parents every single one of them now prefers media such as podcasts, YouTube, and television over music. These media all bring a small since of belonging to the people listening and that is why people are using these to control their sonic environment. They do this because they want to feel apart of something, something like a family. So people are controlling their sonic environment to make themselves not only feel more in control of their lives but also to cure their anxieties. They only thing that is certain is that people who do not like to live their lives without sound and that every person has their own unique soundscape to fill their lives and it is up to them to choose that soundscape.
When asked why these channels most stated that it was the talking that brought about a soothing feeling. Markiplier is known for having a soothing voice and through most of his videos he talks in a relatively calm manner. It is not only his voice that is nice the fact that he is constantly talking to the audience makes one feel that they are apart of the video even if one is not actually watching it. The Super Beard Brothers are similar in that audience interaction and they are known for doing video game trivia while doing their videos. Finally Critical Role is mainly a Dungeons and Dragons channel. It is run by the dungeon master Mathew Mercer, who is an accomplished voice actor. In fact all the people who appear on Critical Role are voice actors. This brings in an outstanding voice performance that does not require one to watch to get involved. Critical Role even has a website dedicated to its best moments. These channels are all wonderful to watch, but above their visuals they all have a great audio component that allows people to feel involved. These channels also do not require that great a deal of focus to be able to follow what is going on so one can do many different activities while listening to these channels. The one thing these all have in common though is conversation. I believe that it is this conversation that helps sooth these people allowing them to focus more on the tasks they are trying to do whether that is reading, homework, or playing games. In fact, as I am writing this blog, I am listening to a YouTube video. The other fifteen is split with five with podcasts, ten with television using Netflix and Hulu as their primary medius. All interviewed people had at least listened to on audiobook. The reason audiobooks have been so big is because the website audible allows audiobooks to be so accessible.
The world is very chaotic and there are very little people can control, but one thing we can control is often what we hear. I feel that it is this control over our sonic environments that pushes people to listen to these things when doing activities. Now because of the internet people have an even finer control of what they can listen to before now most people where stuck listening to music, but now people can listen to whatever they want. Driving for example used to be dominated by the radio and it is talk shows and music. Now from the interviews I have collected I believe that podcasts and audiobooks are slowly becoming the preferable form of sonic control when driving. Twenty-three of the interviewed people have stated that because they are so busy with work and school that they no longer read, but only listen to audiobooks while driving or when doing menial tasks such as emptying the dishwasher. In this case like the previous case this is once again talking becoming the main way people can control their anxiety. I believe this has a strong connection to personal upbringing, because out of the thirty-two people asked thirty of them grew up in loud households whether they had lots of siblings or just talkative parents every single one of them now prefers media such as podcasts, YouTube, and television over music. These media all bring a small since of belonging to the people listening and that is why people are using these to control their sonic environment. They do this because they want to feel apart of something, something like a family. So people are controlling their sonic environment to make themselves not only feel more in control of their lives but also to cure their anxieties. They only thing that is certain is that people who do not like to live their lives without sound and that every person has their own unique soundscape to fill their lives and it is up to them to choose that soundscape.
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