Filling the Silence with Digital Noise – NN/g

Kate Moran and Kim Flaherty, NN/g:

In our Life Online research project, we investigated the real-life context in which users perform everyday digital tasks. Throughout multiple field studies and diary studies, we observed a recurring theme: digital “noise” is used to fill the “silent” moments in people’s lives both literally and figuratively:

I try not to do this, but I do it all the time in all sorts of ways, and I don’t even like noise.