Wired for Rings, Beeps and Vibes
Over the past several years I’ve noticed myself hearing phantom cell phone rings. I reach for my phone, thinking I hear its little tune or feel its vibration in my pant pocket, but it will turn out to have been only the music I’m listening to, or just a slight shift in the fabric of my clothing.
It was eerie when it first started happening with some regularity. But then it turned out that I’m not the only one. My sister has also mentioned hearing phantom rings, and tonight Anita confirmed that she too has often noticed hallucinatory vibrations. I just looked it up and found various other sources have been reporting on this for a while now. I guess I missed this meme when it first gained attention; there are evidently even special words like “ringxiety” for the phenomenon.
I felt relieved as I learned that this experience is so common. Yet I also found myself unsettled by how hard-wired I’ve become to this modern world, how much subconscious thought and energy I put into scanning for these mundane patterns, to the extent that my pattern matching has become over-exuberant and jumpy. And even more discomforting was the realization that my experiences are so very non-unique, and that so many other people are becoming wired in nearly the exact same way.
April 27th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
As much as technology extends our individual abilities, it amputates us from others. I get the very same thing it never dawned on me to research into what it was.
We have all become cyborgs using technology as an extension of our bodies, but at what price on our minds?