The rise of silent services

On November 19, 2024By Pranco

Denise Sticha of Spring Township enjoys her book about Mount K2. Credit: Jeremy Drey/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Image

IIt can be easy to go a day without talking to anyone else, especially if you work remotely. But people are also increasingly avoiding talking to each other when they leave the house, thanks to companies and activities that allow them to request silence.

“It’s just the concept that the individual in the chair doesn’t have to commit,” says Andrew Edwards, co-founder of Sunday Salon, a hair studio in Cary, N.C., where customers can request a haircut. silent hair appointment. “They can sit there and just relax.”

Silent haircuts – where the stylist is instructed in advance not to make small talk – are just one of the silent services that are becoming increasingly available in the US. Both Uber and Lyft offer passengers the option to choose a silent ride, meaning the driver doesn’t talk to them. (About 13% of Lyft Black and Extra Comfort customers, who are the passengers who can ask for a quiet ridedid so in 2023, according to the company.) Some massage studios offer a silent massagewhere the therapist will not attempt to engage in conversation with the client. A Japanese retailer even offers shoppers the option of holding a blue bag as they enter the store, indicating that they do not want a salesperson to talk to them.

Other stores have given customers simple ways to avoid talking to other people. Ichiran, a restaurant with 85 locations worldwide, offers individual cabins that resemble booths where customers eat alone. The US is the largest market for corporate self-checkout, which allows people to go to a pharmacy or supermarket and not have to interact with a receptionist. Use of the technology hit record levels in 2023This is reported by RBR Data Services.

People also seem to embrace silence in their spare time. There is the TikTok trend that praises walk silently– just wandering around alone, without podcasts, music or friends. There are silent book clubs in cities across the country, where people show up with a book they want to read and sit together in silence. (The club’s founders call it “introvert happy hour.”)

“It’s a way for people who choose the quiet Ubers to be social in a way that’s comfortable for them,” says Laura Gluhanich, who co-founded the Silent Book Club in San Francisco with Guinevere de la Mare after friends wanted to join. joining their tradition of sitting and reading together in restaurants. There are nearly 1,500 Silent Book Club chapters around the world, she says, up from about 500 last year. (Some participants chat before or after the reading begins, Gluhanich says.)

Some people want to avoid talking because of how polarized the country is, said Jessica Methot, a professor of human resource management at Rutgers University who studies social networks. They don’t want to open their mouths and start an argument that they can’t get out of because they’re trapped in a chair or in the car.

But we lose something when we embrace solitude and avoid small talk, says Melhot. Research shows that short interactions can provide energy and that most people underestimate the value of a conversation. Small talk, which makes up about a third of our conversations, “is the social glue of our lives and our workplaces,” says Methot, who worries that in an era of remote work, Zoom calls and silent shifts, people may be lonelier because they don’t have these short, personal interactions. “We need to look offline for small everyday chats that can boost our daily experience,” she says.

But for many, silent services provide much-needed relief. Edwards, the salon owner, says his shop started offering silent appointments in 2021 because masks made it difficult for stylists and clients to understand each other. Now people book a quiet hair appointment so they can take a nap, work on their laptop or just stare into the distance. It’s also popular with people who may have a language barrier and get stressed at the idea of making small talk with a relative stranger, Edwards says.

Edwards says he initially didn’t know how the experiment would work. He believes that half of a stylist’s job is cutting hair, and the other half is talking to people. But he says customers seem to like the idea. “We’re always on the road, getting calls, texts and emails,” he says. “Sometimes it’s good to take a break.”

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