#FridayAfternoonThought It's a beepy world!
Are they a beeping nuisance or a beeping wonder? I've been doing some beeping maths.
Just in my kitchen,
🍵 my fancy new kettle beeps for all sorts of things - change the setting to a different temperature (one beep); start it up (one beep); when it's got to temperature) (3 beeps); when you take it off the stand (one beep); when you put it back on the stand (one beep).
So the average cup of tea, if you need to refill, is 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 3 + 1 = 8 beeps! 🔟
🧊 Fridge door - leave open too, long lots of beeps (useful, this one)
☕ Microwave - change power setting one beep at a time, set time in beeping increments, beep to start, 6 beeps when it's finished.
Any new small appliances tend to have beeps where my old ones didn't.
🫧 Washing machine - I've managed to silence the really annoying beepy music! 👏
For beeps:
The final beeps are meant to alert you that it's ready - possibly handy. Safety? Jury's out for me on that one.
Against beeps:
🧏♂️ Mostly, him indoors can't hear them - out of his hearing range;
🙉 I'm so inured to them I don't notice them half the time either - I can't begin to count how many reheated cups of tea have gone cold again in the microwave only to be discovered hours later...
Those are just in my old-fashioned kitchen. Out there, it's rife - lifts, doors, entry systems, payment systems, car systems, change my watch settings, people on public transport who don't turn off the beeps to key on their phones (I mean, come on, it's not 1999 anymore)...
I'm not quite sad enough to keep a daily tally of beeps 😜 .. but the sheer number of them means that they now annoy me more than inform me!
I want beeps that tell you something useful - the car has a problem to fix, the fridge door is open, a payment was declined, I might tolerate a machine beeping that it's finished its work (but not too many beeps)
Why beeps? What else could we use?
Why so many? Just because we can?
What are your beeping nuisances and what are your beeping usefuls?