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this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2024
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Asklemmy
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So "background ambience" would be a better term to describe the city council meetings?
I think literal noise is a good term for it.
Well, if you’re using it to isolate yourself, then I think noise is good for it. Like if you don’t want to hear the neighbors or roommates, noise is good because noise obstructs signals.
And more generally, noise refers to sounds that are not explicitly wanted or requested. Which is also what background is.
It’s a good question. I suppose it couldn’t hurt to instruct a chatbot to write a 20000 word essay on the question of what exactly the best term is, and then pipe that into the “say” command in mac os terminal and use my volume control scripts to make it sort of softly murmur in the background as I go to sleep tonight. I don’t think that would make me a crazy person. At least not right away.
Ambiance. I like that.
Words have more than one meaning and your use of it is completely fine imo.
White noise can also mean:
meaningless or distracting commotion, hubbub, or chatter
I agree we get to map definitions as we see fit. I propose we use the word “noise” for what you mentioned, and when the term gets longer it should refer to something more specific.
In the term “white noise”, the “white” refers to equal energy output in each wavelength, I believe. It’s distinguished from pink noise, brown noise, etc.
Of course, it should also refer to white nationalist propaganda, because there’s no way that could cause any confusion.
“I put a little white noise so I can go so sleep easier”
😬
No. There is occasional some yelling, both from and at the commissioners, I don't want anyone to be startled out of relaxation.
I would refer to this as background noise, yes.