Noise Is Only Alive While It Moves You: Cut the Digital Static

Noise is only alive while it moves you.

“Noise.”
That’s a song from the Kinks’ 80s album State of Confusion.
It’s jarring in some places. It was intentional. But that audio fragment is relevant. Now, more than ever.
Digital noise wasn’t even part of the equation back then.

Where I live, leaf blowers form part of the auditory landscape on a Friday. Without that droning in the background, I might easily check the calendar and verify if it’s indeed Friday. And these people are tenacious—even with a bit of drizzle outside, they’ll engage with the leaf blowers.

Noise is a complex term. It can be signal. It can be loud, harsh, intrusive. The interesting thing is, without a break, without interruption, the signal dissolves. You can test that yourself: hear a car alarm, you perk up. But the minute it keeps blaring indefinitely, you block it out. It doesn’t send the signal anymore—except for being annoying.

Noise is only alive if it provokes movement. Without movement, it collapses into static.

Facebook, X, LinkedIn—yes, even LinkedIn—TikTok, Instagram, the WhatsApp or Telegram group for your street or neighborhood… they flood your mental space, your personal space, with clutter. How much of that signal—how much of the digital noise you experience on news platforms—contributes to you engaging, spending time, but not moving to action?

Every platform, every politician, every colleague—if their words don’t shift you, they’re just filling air. And air, when crowded, suffocates.

I’ve known colleagues who couldn’t work without background audio, whether music or somebody reading a book. The brain is a battlefield. Some thrive in chaos and loudness; others collapse. Not everyone calms the same way; not everybody focuses the same way.

So the takeaway:
If the noise originates with you—what purpose does it serve?
Think about this. If the politician rambles on and you can’t act on it, is it signal or what?
Your comment, added to a hundred other comments—is that noise?
The online fights you have, diving 10 levels deep in nested verbal ping‑pong matches—is that noise?
Do you think, or believe you are moving anything forward?
Is your time worth it?

Signal is rare. It cuts. It demands. Everything else? Camouflage.
Your move: When does your noise become signal? You decide—by demanding action.