It's always seemed strange to me that it's so common for people to feel the need to have continuous ... radio/podcasts/tv.
It turns out there is a fair amount of research done on this, look into:
Hello, me. It's been a while
31–40 of 219 posts
Re: Hello, me. It's been a while
#32I find that if I'm driving or doing a chore or something, listening to nothing can sometimes be boring, but if I listen to a podcast I'll sometimes get distracted by my own thoughts and miss 5 minutes of it. Music tends to be the sweet spot in the middle where if my mind wants to wander then I'm not missing anything important, but if my mind doesn't want to wander then I still have something for it to focus on.
Re: Hello, me. It's been a while
#33I've done several solo multi day hikes in the last 6 months, mostly ones where I stayed in a hut or campground at night and socialized around dinner, but hiked solo during the day. No podcast or music, no cell service. It's amazing how quickly I get used to having no input once it's the only thing to do, yet also how quickly I go back to always having a podcast on in the car and for my runs.
Re: Hello, me. It's been a while
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're not unusual. Constant need for something in your ear is a very new phenomena and for some reason a lot of people have gotten in the habit of isolating themselves from the world around them and stopped being in presence of the reality. Sad.
> Constant need for something in your ear is a very new phenomena and for some reason a lot of people have gotten in the habit of isolating themselves from the world around them and stopped being in presence of the reality. Sad. Convenient narrative, but not at all a new phenomenon. I had friends like this in the 90's. And I'm not seeing more people like this than in those days.
I know we're kind of used to rapid societal change at this point, but I'd still consider the 90s or even the 80s recent enough that I could call things that arose in those times as "new phenomena"... from a broader societal standpoint at least.
Re: Hello, me. It's been a while
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Constant need for something in your ear is a very new phenomena and for some reason a lot of people have gotten in the habit of isolating themselves from the world around them and stopped being in presence of the reality. Sad. Convenient narrative, but not at all a new phenomenon. I had friends like this in the 90's. And I'm not seeing more people like this than in those days.
I know we're kind of used to rapid societal change at this point, but I'd still consider the 90s or even the 80s recent enough that I could call things that arose in those times as "new phenomena"... from a broader societal standpoint at least.
I can agree with that. Cable TV, Walkmans, and well, even just TVs in general are to blame.
Re: Hello, me. It's been a while
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I prefer silence but generally use music to focus. My choices aren't usually music or silence in practice, but music or office background noise. Since my ordered ranking is Silence, then Music, with Office Noise last, music it is.
But music as instrumentals, yes ? Words are very distracting.
Funny. For me, instrumental music is just as distracting. If I don’t know the music I listen to well enough, my attention will go there and make any coding or reading impossible.
Re: Hello, me. It's been a while
#37It's always seemed strange to me that it's so common for people to feel the need to have continuous ... radio/podcasts/tv. It turns out there is a fair amount of research done on this, look into: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_partial_attention
That’s how Von Neumann did his thang, with a tv blaring in the background
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#38ITT: a lot of undiagnosed ADHD
Re: Hello, me. It's been a while
#39I’m not able to do my work with music, or even noise-canceling headphones. I’ve tried, and it doesn’t work. I know that I’m unusual, in that sense, but there you have it. I do listen to music, on my morning walks, though. That’s the only time, during the day, when I do.
You're not unusual. Constant need for something in your ear is a very new phenomena and for some reason a lot of people have gotten in the habit of isolating themselves from the world around them and stopped being in presence of the reality. Sad.
Isn't this like self-stimming or self-regulatory behavior?
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#40> I’m a slow thinker, like really slow. It takes a few minutes just to get my thoughts moving in a direction. But once they pick up momentum, I can easily spend fifteen or thirty minutes exploring an idea, weighing different options
Here's to the slow thinking! Cheers!!