I have to say both, I like music or TV etc during the day. But dead silence when I need to sleep or study.

Silence, I hear enough noise already...cars driving by, people talking, kids playing outside...arrggg!!

What she said.

I think those of us who are deaf or hard of hearing has a greater appreciation or greater hatred for silence.

I prefer to have either music or CBC Radio one on in the BG... if I am doing dishes or cleaning the house it is no longer in the BG...

I just prefer it this way, even when I am reading.

When I travel, the first thing I do in a hotel room is turn on the TV to BBC world or CNN International... I like the white noise it provides (hotel radio generally sucks)...


The funny thing is, when I am on vacation (like next week at the cottage) I like my silence. I get up early in the morning to sit on the dock and just breathe...

I hate noise in general. It bothers me more than it should. Sometimes I can't concentrate at all.l

Like Sweatpea, I, too, like balance. But I need a fan to sleep effectively.

My problem with music--<i>any kind of music</i>-- is that when it's playing I tend to become absorbed by it. I start analyzing it and listening for certain nuances - or even re-writing it in my mind. Don't get me wrong ... this is what I enjoy.

So I can't have it on as a background noise. My wife on the other hand loves to have music on as background. We've had some arguments in the car. Especially when I'm working on a song of my own and have it running around in my head.

more silence then sound. when it's quiet, the pictures in my mind come to life just long enough for me to fix them there.

sometimes when working, and sometimes in the car, i'll listen to the radio or a CD. but more often then not, i prefer to listen to the noises around me... the hum of the road, the drone of the AC, the sweet sweet lowing of the fridge.

but when indulging in mind alteration, always always music. shoe gaze-y stuff is nice, or any thing with a healthy (edit) dose of (end eidt) guitar feedback from hendrix to my bloody valentine. ahhh, feedback.

I have found that there are very few instances of real silence.

There is always a revving car engine or a humming light fixture. I can even hear when the television is on with no volume. Freaky? Yes...me and my dog-like hearing.

Total silence IS nice, when you can get it. But when there are other less pleasant noises going on, like in an office situation (recall Office Space), I'd prefer some type of music or nature sounds - helps me to focus.

"Sound" is way to broad. I don't want music all the time and cars passing by and sirens and conversations and people upstairs, but the sound of the wind rustling the beech leaves or the sound of a few finches or the sound of a not too distant river is another story. I like quiet, but even the quietest of quiet is far from silent.

Silence kinda makes me feel uneasy. When I'm alone I always have music in the background. Even when I go to sleep.

It seems like I have either music or my TV always on when I am in my room, or wherever I am, so definitely sound here.

When I'm doing anything but meditating or focusing (or have a migraine,) the silence can literally become deafeningly loud. In the absence of sound, my brain has decided that the sound I need to hear is a resonating ringng/whistling in my ears. It crescendos until I'll actually start moving around solely for the sake of making noise. If I didn't, I'm relatively certain that I'd start to panic and worry that I'd gone deaf. On the other hand, the ringing sound and control of it can be a useful focus to induce a light trance for meditation.

I don't think there is ever really a time when I don't have music going...

I prefer silence, with two exceptions. When I'm working I need to have music going or I get bored, start daydreaming, and stop paying attention to what's going on around me, especially if I haven't had a good nights sleep. Which leads into the second exception, if I don't have music or a movie on when I go to sleep I'll sit in bed for hours staring at the roof.

I have two young kids so silence is golden to me!

My work is very busy, lots of people, music always on, etc. and then I have two chatterboxes yacking at me until their bedtime so I tend to treasure my quiet times.

I like both - I used to be a musician and sound was of course a big part of my life. I still like it to be sometimes. But I also enjoy times of solitude and quiet thinking. At this point, I'm probably more silence than sound, but that balance changes and will no doubt change again.

David Gahan said it the best, "Enjoy the silence."

I went for equal balance, although that's not a completely accurate description, it's very close to it.

I'm honestly quite surprised at the way the poll turned out. In my experience, the majority of people seem to be borderline obsessed with sound. Whether it's having a discman/mp3 player wherever they go, always having the stereo or TV on, or the obvious discomfort (or boredom) expressed by most people when there is even a small lull in conversation, and those who, when confronted with a lull, will go into sometimes completely inane subject matter in order to keep the air filled with vibrations.