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Technology advances with the promise of improving our lives by offering conveniences and connectedness we never had before. There are so many products on the market today that didn’t even exist twenty years ago that our language staggers to keep up. We still say “roll up” your car window, we still call them “record companies,” movies are still called “films,” we still say “take your picture,” and even the term “computer” doesn’t much describe how the machine is actually used (in fact, there are probably hundreds of these out-of-date sayings, and it would be fun to hear from you readers out there any you can think of). We are definitely in a new era. It is surely not the Agrarian Age anymore, nor is it the Industrial Age. Yes, my friends, we are in the Information Age.

Only, I’m not sure that term is sufficient or even accurate. My business partner and co-author Orrin Woodward has lately taken to calling it the Conceptual Age. Some have said the Communication Age. Others the Connected Age.

For me? I call it the Noise Age. Or the Clutter Age.

Okay, maybe it’s just my mood today. But does it seem to anyone else (or is it just me?) that with all the advances in communication and electronics that we have more stuff and less substance? Is anyone else tired of the tyranny of cell phone calls, voice messages, faxes, emails, text messages, facebook notifications and messages, twitter @messages and notifications, spam, popups, and instant messages? Now don’t get me wrong (as Chrissy Hynde would sing), I appreciate and utilize all of these things myself. I am just as impatient as the next guy if I can’t get a hold of someone immediately. And I can’t imagine doing the things I do for a living without all of these great tools. But there is a by-product of all this “connectedness,” and it’s another word that certainly hasn’t gone out of style or become old-fashioned: “Harried.”

Harried: beset by problems, harassed.

That’s how I feel from time to time; harassed. Stop ringing phone! Stop filling up, email box! I’m trying to actually get something accomplished!

Remembering that focus and consistency are key to success in any area, it is important that we understand how to shut out the noise and allow for productivity. It’s okay to turn off all the electronic communication tools in your life so that you can have time to think and pray. It’s still fundamentally important to have quiet time to read and study. And spending quality time in physical proximity to the ones you love, smelling the baby hair, hearing the toddler giggles, seeing the dimpled smiles, and receiving the oatmeal kisses, are still way above texted photos and IMs in my book.

So there. I am not a nostalgist, nor am I as old as this diatribe might make me sound! But I do recommend that for true accomplishment in life both professionally and personally, we must learn to manage the noise. Technology should be made to work for us. We don’t work for it!

(Now email this to everybody. Be sure and put it on your Twitter. IM all your friends about it. And leave me a comment if you can)!

🙂

Posted in Humor

11 responses to “The Noise Age”

Dave in FL

January 5, 2009

Hi Chris,
So when are u coming to a farm to ride horses, eat a picnic lunch by a cold stream, do some fly fishing, just watch the world go by, meet your relatives there, so you can make memories? It’s a place of rocking chairs on the porch, fresh garden veggies, watching hummingbirds and bees, and watching grass grow. Walking in the woods, making a campfire, roasting marshmellows, telling ghost stories, long rides in the country on roads with no lines and going to the old church for Sunday Service.
This is the noise I like to hear when I go back to the farm in upstate New York.

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Brent Campau

January 5, 2009

I forget where I read this, but someone said that our day’s mindset is programmed by what we do to start our day.
For example, if we begin our day answering email or checking voicemail, we’ve programmed ourselves to be at the mercy of other people’s requests that day.
So, at home, I try and start my day by reading the bible and paying attention to my wife, if she’s awake. If she’s sleeping, I at least kiss her on the cheek. And at work, I avoid my email for at least a half hour and work on a project that I know is important.
Just one of my techniques to avoid being “harried”. If that’s how you use that word:)

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Phyllis Hoff

January 6, 2009

Chris:
I so totally agree. I absolutely must have quiet time. The very simple things, a flower, a sunset, a hug. All of these are way better than any technology can offer.
I like to shut the phone off, the computer off, and just enjoy a morning, an afternoon, or an entire day.
Thanks for the reminder.
Phyllis

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Cathy

January 6, 2009

Chris,
Oh, can I relate to this one!! There are definitely more days than my husband and I can count when we ask ourselves why we ever gave our cell phone numbers to our kids . . . Our mentors, running mates and sponsors (actually, the same couple for all descriptions) wonder the same things for both their kid and ours, sometimes, too . . .
Our favorite vacation spot to which we would take our kids when they were small is in the mountains here in upstate NY. It was only about 1 1/2 hours away, in a secluded valley on a lake in the Adirondack Forest Preserve, a state wilderness area. And had no telephones, no electricity and no cell phone reception. The entertainment was provided by God’s own natural handiwork (loons are lovely to listen to in the morning and evening) and ourselves with games and campfire sing-alongs. Due to health reasons, I can’t camp there in the wilderness any more, though we still picnic there almost yearly.
Today, I actually got in trouble because I gave my kids and Mom my work phone number and they had the nerve to call me on it. This, because I got in trouble when they called me there on my cell phone . . . Will someone please tell me where it was in my employment contract that I had to check my life at the door?? (My response: I’m setting my goals, re-writing my dreams and I am OUT of that hotbed of stupefying negativity this year . . . Thanks for the great dreaming CD that came down in our latest pack, Chris!!!)

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Laurence Goldkamp

January 7, 2009

The girls in my youth group are always texting and their phone is always buzzing. They’re Always Connected!! Tap tap tap tap click click click! It reminds me of the Matrix… “It sounds to me like you need to unplug man. You know, get some R&R.”

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Marcia Delaney

January 8, 2009

I thought technology was suppose to make our lives easier not more complicated.

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Robert

January 9, 2009

In all your reading have you ever read about harmonic structure, ratios and the laws of resonance? And how it applies to the human condition? I would guess as an engineer you studied the mathematical principles in school.

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Judy Henry

May 21, 2013

Chris,
I think sometimes we can use the ‘noise’ to avoid doing what is really important in our lives. especially if it takes us out of our comfort zone.
Judy Henry

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Steve Del Castillo

August 27, 2015

Spot on sir! Thanks for the words of wisdom. I’m checking out now! Got some work to do, the kind with real people face to face and belly to belly!

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Micah Kramer

August 27, 2015

Great article and very insightful perspective. Thanks for resharing.
MK in TX

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Joshdmelton

May 11, 2017

Reminds me of the song “Adding to the Noise” by the band Switchfoot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9eiHUPbtJE

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