If there were a promotional program for infrequent flyers, as there is for frequent flyers, I would be a member in good standing. In 2015, I traveled by plane to Europe and back. In 2019, I flew to Milwaukee and back again for a memorial service for my mother-in-law. That’s all the flying I’ve done in the last 20 years or so.
Now, having just flown from Dulles Airport to Kansas City — my return trip took me through O’Hare in Chicago — I can report that I was a bit stunned by the sound I heard on all three aircraft.
It was the sound of silence.
On my flight west, in a seat somewhere behind me, a father spent less than a quarter hour reading a story to his son. On our approach to O’Hare, a toddler fussed for a few minutes. On one of these flights, the sounds of laughter came once from a seat nearer the front of the plane.
Otherwise, with the exception of the usual announcements from the pilots and flight attendants, nothing but silence.
Instead of conversing, all around me were people tapping away on their phones. Supplied with earbuds, most of the others were watching some movie or show of their choice playing on the tiny screens affixed to the back of the seat in front of them. Two people appeared to be sleeping, so I suppose the hush was helpful for them. To better see their screens, nearly all the passengers had shuttered the portholes that would have allowed them to see the clouds or the earth beneath us.
With the exception of church, I’ve never been in such an enclosed space with so many people in such deep silence. In church, the silence is reverential and can be profound; the silence aboard these darkened aircraft was eerie.
On boarding my flight from Kansas City to Chicago, I did speak a few minutes to an elderly woman and her daughter as the plane prepared for take-off. Once in the air, however, they seemed eager to turn on the screens on the seats – each watched a different show – and the conversation died.
Perhaps my memory is faulty, but in my younger years, when I flew more, it seemed to me people on an aircraft spoke more to one another, even if it was to comment on the weather or to ask their destination. Sometimes, of course, conversation might be unwelcome, at which point the recluse might seek privacy in the pages of a book or by pretending to take a nap. But generally, I remember people conversing, and hearing voices and laughter on those flights.
In the airports themselves – Dulles, O’Hare, and Kansas City International – the silence was missing, but the phones were ubiquitous. Everywhere I went, people were staring into the machines in the palms of their hands, sitting, walking, standing, and in one case, lying on the floor. For every 30 people or so who were entranced by their phones, I saw maybe one person actually reading a physical book.
Moreover, neither age nor gender was a factor in using these hand-held devices. Whether flying at 35,000 feet or sitting in a terminal where every minute a dozen people from other countries paraded past them, young and old alike seemed mesmerized by their screens. At one point, I realized that if I suddenly fell writhing with pain, gripping my chest, most people wouldn’t even notice.
In the past decade, much has been written and said about the negative effects of screens on children and adolescents. Writers like Jonathan Haidt, author of “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness,” have researched and reported the damage inflicted by devices on our young people in schools and at home, how phones, televisions, and electronic games are damaging everything from emotional wellness to physical fitness.
Few, however, who have spoken vigorously about the toll these gadgets take on adults are heeded.
We’ve long been aware that there’s a loneliness crisis in the United States, that more people than ever before feel cut off from other human beings. Twenty-five years ago, for example, Robert Putnam’s best-seller “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community,” called attention to the collapse of social institutions and private interactions that once brought Americans together.
In 2023, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared this crisis of loneliness an epidemic, with about half of all Americans claiming they experienced loneliness on a regular basis, which in turn breeds anxiety and depression. In “America’s Loneliness Epidemic: What Is to Be Done?” Dr. Daniel Knoepflmacher notes that of the four major causes contributing to our feelings of isolation, two are screen-related: interacting online instead of in-person and using social media for our connections rather than live interactions.
Clearly, the passengers on those three aircraft preferred the company of their screens to the company of the stranger seated next to them. Clear as well is the evidence that such isolation is bad for society and for us as individuals.
Silence, it seems, isn’t always golden after all.
Jeff Minick is a father of four and grandfather to many. A former history, literature, and Latin teacher, Jeff now writes prolifically for The Epoch Times, American Essence Magazine, and several other publications.
This culture article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal, a project of 1819 News. To comment on this article, please email [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News.
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