That’s a whole lot of loud and fairly useless information bouncing around inside our head! We could rightly feel justified in wanting to dull the noise inside by blocking out the world and listening to our favourite tunes.

But when a recent survey found that us Aussies spend $4.5 billion annually on lifestyle technology, the question must be asked: What is the real price of peace and quiet? Is there no other way to chill out and settle down than to block our ears and retreat into what is familiar?

You might like to try this experiment for yourself: Next time you are in a new group or an unfamiliar situation and you don’t have anyone to talk to, ask yourself what feelings you have. What are you most inclined to do when you feel this way?

If you are like most young moderns you will try to avoid the yucky feelings by either getting out the phone or the MP3 player.

Of course, our feelings come from inside us, not from what’s going on around us outside. Tuning out from the world doesn’t necessarily make those feelings go away, but if the music is loud enough we can forget it for a while.

Ironically, when we block out the world we can end up cutting ourselves off from the very thing we are most longing for – a deep and real connection with other people. We can walk past the people we love the most and not even see them.

Maybe it’s time to turn the music down.