Modern nature is composed of artificial sounds

In our modern world, artificial sounds have become the sounds of nature. Our world is completely composed of both natural and artificial sounds. By simply sitting in the grass for an hour, I was able to hear a wide range of both categories. I could hear the natural sounds of people chatting, kids, a baby, and people laughing, a baby crying, people clapping, people cheering, wind rustling the leaves of trees, wind rushing past my ear, water splashing, and leaves being crunched underfoot. However, I was also very aware of the artificial sounds of cars passing by, the hum of electronics such as computers, phones, and lights, the drilling of power tools, skateboards, bikes, an airplane, keys jingling, a clock in the distance, bells, typing, as well as all kinds of music. It struck me how difficult it was to pick one sound from another because they all merged. I found that I had to focus really hard in order to pick out individual sounds. Once I was able to pick out different sounds, I realized that many of the artificial sounds were relatively new. If I think back to 10 years ago, I can remember the distinct, clunky sound that the processing system of a computer made and the lack of A.I. assistants going off in classes. Though 10 years ago doesn’t seem that long, most of the artificial sounds we hear have evolved to levels we didn’t have then. Today, everyone has a smartphone and a computer but those items have been adapted to be lighter and quieter than they were 10 years ago. Even cars are constantly being adapted and improved to be quieter and new sounds are produced by technology constantly. Most of the sounds we hear from technology would not have existed 50 or even 20 years ago. When it comes to artificial sounds, nothing ever stays the same but we still somehow tune them out to the point that we don’t notice that it ever changed. Natural sounds, however, tend to be noticed and almost glorified nowadays. When a bird sings, I have noticed that people will stop what they are doing to appreciate the sound of the bird. Is that human nature trying to connect with natural sounds and separate from the artificial world? Or is it simply because we are starved of the natural sounds the world makes without our help? Unlike the sound of a car or computer or phone, a blue-jay has always sounded like a blue-jay. The ocean has always sounded like the ocean whether today, 10, 20, or even 50 years ago. The original natural sounds of the world have always been here but they too have evolved to an extent. There are new species of animals and plants that also create sounds that were not created 10, 20, or 50 years ago simply because they didn’t exist yet. The difference is that we always know when a new natural sound comes up but we hardly notice when a new artificial sound does. We keep track of the new sounds of plants and animals but don’t even realize that every time a new product is created today, we create a new set of sounds that didn’t exist before that product was created.

Jazz