Noisy Screens
I am currently in the middle of watching a few episodes of the TV series 24 on FX. They’re having a 24 hour marathon to mirror the 24 hour episodes in the series.
Something puzzles me about the computer monitors that everyone uses on the show. They all seem to make a buzzing sound as they load pictures and data. This got me thinking and I realized that this is a very common effect in many shows and movies that I can remember.
The sound itself changes depending on the show or the type of computer. Often, it sounds very much like a flatbed scanner, although maybe a bit more shrill.
What is the purpose of this sound? Do computers not seem high tech enough on screen if they aren’t making all sorts of noise? Most people watching tv or movies nowadays are likely to know that computers don’t make all these sounds when loading images on screen.
I know I’d be pretty upset if my monitor made that much noise.