“Visual noise” is a phenomenon most people experience, but a term rarely used. We feel it every day but have never uttered the phrase.
However, for the sake of your home, your work, your kids, and your sanity, allow me a moment to explain it.
Visual noise is “any random visual stimulus.”
Just like your ear sends electrical signals to your brain when sound is present, your eyes constantly send electrical signals to your brain when visual stimuli is present. The more physical clutter that surrounds us, the more visual noise we experience.
Of course, because we are surrounded by sights and sounds continuously (if our senses are working properly), our brain learns to quickly process and interpret these stimuli.
However, an overdose of stimuli can still overwhelm us.
Just imagine how your brain responds to a crowded street corner, a rock concert, or a packed ballgame. In those immediate surroundings, our brains learn to adapt to the increased stimuli. But when we leave the stadium and walk to our car in quiet, we begin to realize fully just how loud it had actually been inside.
We feel the weight of how that level of noise had impacted our senses.
We can even feel the impact of too much stimuli in smaller scenarios such as turning off the radio while driving to focus on the directions or muting the television for an important conversation.
Well, it turns out, visual noise (visual clutter) has the same negative effect on our brains.
It’s one of the reasons why you can close your eyes and feel the difference on your shoulders when you imagine sitting in a cluttered room compared to sitting in a tidy room. Just like our brain doesn’t always reveal to us the full weight of noise until it is removed, our brains don’t always reveal to us the high level of visual clutter until we remove ourselves from the physical space.
But every physical item surrounding us adds to the volume of visual noise in our environment.
This understanding is vitally important to us. Especially as we spend more and more time at home these days. Or as our home becomes the place our children learn and/or we conduct our work.
The negative effect of too much visual noise is well documented:
Visual noise hinders our ability to concentrate.
Visual noise slows our ability to learn.
Visual noise makes it harder to communicate.
Visual noise contributes to fatigue.
And it may even cause migraines to be worse.
Based on these findings, creating a calm, peaceful, visually quiet environment is one of the most important efforts we can embark upon in our home.
It is to your benefit—especially if you are working from home.
It is to your partner’s benefit.
And it is to your child’s benefit—especially if they are learning from home and the need to concentrate is greater than ever.
The only way to lessen visual noise in your home is to own fewer possessions. Here’s how to get started.
Remove possessions, reduce visual noise, and focus your senses on the things that matter most.
Maria Pinto says
I get this feeling of visual noise when I go into a big box/grocery store or even a thrift store that is crammed full of stuff. I do some bulk shopping at one big grocery but mostly at a store like Trader Joes or Sprouts early in the morning. There are very few people, I know where things are & I’m in and out very quickly.
It’s like do we really need to pick from 30 different cereals? I think it is a marketing ploy to create chaos in your brain to make you buy more stuff.
Luckily some of us fall for it.
Christy Blocker says
I have ADHD and too much clutter is an absolute no no. I will get nothing done as my brain reads every item it sees as something to do. I HAVE to be a minimalist or I’d go nuts and never relax. Didn’t know there was a name for it. Great article!
Maria Pinto says
Tina,
I understand about the craft magazines. Years ago I got turned onto
Country Living Magazine, and I collected as many issues as I could find at garage sales, flea markets, and thrift stores. They were full of
Old Folk Medicine, with lots of great stories from the time of our grandparents. It was hard to part with them so what I did was tear out what I loved the most and put those articles into a folder, and recycled the rest. Now I can enjoy these pearls of wisdom and saved a lot of space.
V. Anderson says
Yes! Thank you for this article. I have tried to explain this and didn’t know what to call it, so I was calling it sensory overload. “Visual noise” is much more accurate. I am one of those people who really don’t work well in clutter. I have now embarked on my own Minimalist journey, it may take me a while, but I know I will get there! Keep up the good work, and keep writing and holding us all accountable!
Ken Swanson says
I was proud to follow my child to his first day of kindergarten. It was an exciting morning for all of us, but as a parent I was rather surprised to discover how much visual noise was presented in the class room. Three sides of the room was covered in posters and infographics related to each subject, world flags, class behavior rules, daily schedules, award charts, organizational tasks, anti bullying campaigns, inspirational quotes, foreign language phrases, emergency evacuation steps, and so on. I was concerned the visual noise would create distraction from learning and make unattended eyes wander the wall and away from the topic being taught. Any teachers who can comment?
Amy says
Ken, absolutely! As a middle school literature teacher, I have found myself over and over removing things from my classroom because they started ‘screaming’ at me. If too much visual stimulation is bothering me as a teacher, I can only imagine what it is doing to my students. I found that, more than ten inspiring posters pasted on every wall, one placed front and centre actually drew the children’s attention more fully. Better yet, empty space. How we can expect kids to learn when so overstimulated visually (not to mention through the other sensory faculties) is beyond me.
Beate says
You gave a feeling a name I could not explain / express until now. Thank you, Joshua. I also think that a colour concept at home (3-4 natural / monochrome colors) comes with the reduction of visual noise.
Brenda Finley says
Wow! Never thought of this, but it makes good sense in my life. Thank you for giving me this insight into my clutter and anxiety.
Paul says
Never thought of it this way (obviously new to the minimalism concepts. Thanks!
Big stinky says
My company has been dragging their feet to replace a dilapidated and structurally unfit building. The basement floods, mold in the air vents, people get head aches and the big boss won’t even go in it due to his problem with mold. Never mind 50 people work there. Joke.
Anyway, they have been looking at open floor plan for the new building because it’s a huge cost savings. That’s why. Not because of collaboration. Open offices are done because they are cheaper
Lin says
This hit home for me. Thank you! I am going forward with “my ears” wide open.