The Sound of Silence

Silence. In a library or a classroom during a test, silence is ideal. Whether you are reading a book or marking a Scantron, you're going to want to be able to think. In fact, any noise-makers in this situation might receive a violent "Shh!" or get their tests taken away. In this case, everything is best when muted.

On the flip side, in social situations, silence is a sign of social ineptness, a conversational faux pas. If you can't come up with anything to say to a person, it says a lot about your relationship. Either you have spoken together so often that you have run out of things to say, or you just don't know what to talk about. Maybe you are just meeting this person, maybe you are in a bad mood, or maybe your friend is the one who lacks the social skills required to maintain an actual conversation.

Regardless, society generally views an awkward silence as a highly negative situation, something that only comes about when someone really messes up. If Jimmy tells a great joke, and Sally follows up with another knee-slapper, everyone in a close vicinity will laugh hysterically. But as soon as Billy tells a real stinker, it's as if nothing had happened before it. Because when Billy created an awkward silence, he completely killed the mood. And you know Billy will never hear the end of it.

I have been Billy many times before. Being the person who creates an awkward silence is an awful experience. In order to reverse the effects of an awkward silence, it's likely that people in the conversation will ask simple potential conversational starters... Things that generally would be laughed at, but necessary at this point to get a conversation going again.

Silence, like many other things, is viewed differently in different situations. We view people who talk in libraries as disrespectful. We view people who talk during tests as cheaters. But when we are being social, silence is something that should be avoided. Silence is a perfect example of something that could have a stigma in one situation and could be desired in another.