The questions that vex us

So, there's an re-emerging trend within audio productions (both songs, and in many cases, movie trailers). I call it the, "just barely conscious signal", in which the audio or video skitezes you, flickers between frames with lots of static-y sounds and visuals. You know. Like you used to get when TVs and radios had knobs you had to turn which moved a connection along a coil to "tune-in" a signal.

You can sometimes get the same effect now-a-days when you have a regular FM/AM signal and there's an intense lightning storm in the area. When I was young, this was a staple of life. The hiss and whine of broadcast signals. It's often used in horror to have the effect of, "emergency broadcast that you can just barely pickup or hear."

It takes me back to my childhood and knowing how to finesse a dial to get a clearer signal. But, you know what? We don't do that anymore. How does this translate to the target audience (12-24 year olds) who all grew up in the digital tuner/cable (and now digital signal) age?

Is it a cultural legacy? Societal anachronistic short hand we all accept (like "dialing" a phone, I remember dialing, my nieces and nephews have never dialed a phone)? Is it part of our genetic memory (the way chickens will scatter when the shadow of a hawk passes over them, even if they've never experienced a bird of prey before)?

And yes, this is what writers stay up past the witching hour contemplating. Because, we must know. How else to play upon your emotions, dear reader, than to know not only what makes you tick, but how.