from LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world on 11 Nov 2025 10:56
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/57413770
I had a comically bad day yesterday, like dropping things, almost lost my keys down the drain on the sidewalk, spilled soup at the store near a makeup section, almost tore my pants, got back from the store only to find out I was out of TP, etc.
It was more funny than anything else, like so much random trivial bad luck in one day is like something out of some 90s Tom Hanks comedy.
But there was one thing that actually annoyed me - on my way back from the store on my grocery trip, my phone suddenly went from a healthy 7% to 0% and died. I was stuck with no music for the remainder of the walk back.
Soooo I was forced to listen to the sound of well - nothing at all basically.
Just birds chirping, wind blowing, leaves rustling, all as I walked the same path I walk all the time and see the same things I’ve seen hundreds of times, just waiting to get home.
Don’t get me wrong I love where I live and everything, it’s a really cool city with good pedestrian infrastructure, I almost never even get close to a car and it’s not some smelly euro village either, but seeing the same things I’ve already seen and having no stimuli at all, it wasn’t that big a deal but it was unpleasant.
That got me thinking - I sometimes see folks not wearing earphones outside, and I’ve heard on more than one occasion from some acquaintances that they don’t listen to music outside, and I wonder - why’s that?
Why would you choose to do that?
And, what do y’all like, do, exactly? How do you deal with the monotony of your grocery trips or things like that when you don’t even have music on? Do you just never get bored of walking the same roads/neighborhoods w/e day after day?
#nostupidquestions
threaded - newest
Live in the present!!NoJust scroll aimlessly
How is listening to music “scrolling aimlessly”? Who tf walks around with their phone out?
I like the sound of what’s going on around me. I enjoy catching little snippets of random conversations, the birds singing, the exhaust notes of passing vehicles. I prefer to be aware of my surroundings instead of insulting myself from them. At home, I’m very literally in the woods, and occasionally feral hogs may cross my path, but they make a lot of noise. When I’m in town the variety of sounds is novel and entertaining to me.
I wear earbuds at work, or if I’m running my tractor or lawnmower. I do drive, but I don’t always have the radio playing in my car. Sometimes quiet is just nice.
Speed running hearing loss. Typically, people crank the audio levels to hear it over the equipment. Get some work-rated hearing protection muffs and wear the earbuds inside that.
However I’d argue that hearing protection combined with additional noise is a good way to lose situational awareness.
Decent buds are as good as earplugs where I work. I seldom crank the volume. If I’m on my tractor no one is around or I don’t use anything. It’s a quiet little 25 horse diesel so that’s not bad. I’m a musician and very protective of my ears, but thanks for the concern.
thinking about stuff (what to eat later, what to do later, etc), chatting with a friend/family member, looking around to see what’s happening (construction, birds doing bird things, plants changing shape/size/color, etc), reading, or humming to a song you know (you don’t need your phone to enjoy music!)
I mean, I do all of those too, (except the humming because that’s pretty weird to do in public), while also listening to music.
if not humming, then listening to music in your mind!
Oh yeah for sure, and I do do that as well, you never know what kind of melody will pop in, but most of the time, when I’m walking to the store it’s not exactly inspirational or got me feeling creative anyway.
For me - creativity requires initial stimulus. Some boredom is good, but too much and it’s depressing, and induces anhedonia. A right level of adventure is perfect. Walk to the store, not exactly an adventure. But the mind can travel. Will it be this today, or something more like this, maybe a bit of this or like that or maybe something older or totally out of the leftfield.
The possibilities are endless.
So you struggle with a 10 minute walk without music because that causes too much boredom for you?
I don’t “struggle”, it’s just a bit annoying.
I literally said in the OP that it’s obviously not a big deal.
Enjoy the world around me. Using the extra sensory input to avoid being run over by cars.
Dons right hand man: alright, the mark has started not wearing their headphones. This throws a wrench in our plans. What’s our counter?
Bobby 2: alls wes gotsa dos is just distract em. Bobby 1, you wait behind the bushes in the parking lot. Wiseguy Phil waits across the street. As soon as 1 sees the mark, he lays on the horn. Then Phil just runs em over while they are looking at 1.
DRHM: but we only got one car!
Bobby 2: sos steals one, do I gotta dos all the thinkin around heres?
Is it really that bad in America? Like I lived in London where cars were plentiful as well but honestly I never had to worry about them, even when I crossed a red by accident or something like that they go so slowly that it was fairly easy to dodge them.
I’m gonna take a safe guess that London has generally much smaller streets and cars than the majority of America, so it would be safer yes. Outside of the cities and a couple of streets in smaller town centres, most cars are likely to be going 50km/h or more down a road with spotty or missing sidewalks and there’s probably a 50% chance of it being an F150. Now I have had good luck with drivers here slowing for me, but it only takes one time to be permanently crippled… So is it “that” bad? Depends what your “that” is, but it is worse yes.
If I’m walking around a park, I may wear earphones. If I’m walking on sidewalks around the city, I’m way too paranoid. I like to be able to hear my surroundings. Case in point, I was crossing a street at a crosswalk with the walk signal active when I was nearly hit by a car; the driver was clearly distracted and ran the red light. The only reason I wasn’t hit was because I heard the car coming and I stopped in the middle of the crosswalk to avoid getting hit. If I had kept going at my pace, I for sure would have been hit.
Jesus, glad you’re okay! I try my best to look both ways but honestly I’ve just kinda made peace that I’ll be hit by a car at some point, I’ve had plenty of near misses before because ADHD etc. where I just forgot I was on a road crossing because I was daydreaming about trilobites or some shit.
To me that just sounds kinda nice
I agree. This is exactly why I don’t wear headphones a lot of the time. So I can listen to those exact noises.
Sometimes I hang out on the porch just to listen to the not very loud noises of nature. Very relaxing.
I agree about all of this, but I have a counterfactual example to post. I was going on a long hike in the woods once, and I found that it was extremely uncomfortable to be alone with my thoughts for such a long time. I tried focusing on the nature around me, but it was just uncomfortable. So I eventually caved and put on headphones and it really helped to listen to something else as I was walking through this beautiful spot.
So now I see headphones as situational. Sometimes they do help when you don’t have enough stimulus to distract you from your own thoughts. If your own thoughts are particularly annoying, but in general I do try to be in appreciation of the nature around me. The birds chirping, the leaves rustling, the people going about their lives, etc.
Extended time spent in nature is how I became comfortable with my thoughts. If I had nonstop music as a kid that may have never happened.
Yes, I still have some pretty awful thoughts but figured out how to either let them go or use them for villain themes in tabletop games.
Yeah sure I like it too, but not day after day damn near every day in the same place at roughly the same times.
Tell me, on the street after the second corner you turn on the way to the store, how many trees are there along the sidewalk? What kind of trees are they?
There’s an interesting book called “On Looking” where the author walked around a city block with 11 experts in different fields and saw the world through their eyes. Here’s an article about it: themarginalian.org/…/on-looking-eleven-walks-with…
The world is endlessly interesting, even in the mundane. Even if it’s just keeping an eye out for new street art or thinking about a project or figuring out what I will do this weekend or just listening to my body and feeling the new aches or am old pain going away. There’s often not a need for music for me.
Depends on the specific path, but there are 4-6 trees, planted in the middle of a small parking lot in front of an office building. I’m no tree specialist, so Idk, they’re just fairly normal common kind of trees.
There is a lot more around the corner itself and they were a delightful shade of gold a few weeks back, to the point at certain angles they’d actually do that ray tracing thing of bleeding colour onto the concrete paths, I was tired from work that week and because of how dark it got I never got the chance to take my DSLR out and take some shots at mid-day, contrasted with a cloudless blue sky it would be quite beautiful, but oh well.
I agree with all of this except the last part, because if anything all of this is enhanced by music for me.
I genuinely have never paired Bluetooth headphones to my phone. So I haven’t worn headphones for a phone since the 3.8mm jack was taken from us.
I listen to music when I drive and I wear headphones on my PC.
Walking? 99% of the time that’s exercise like hiking, and I raw dog that shit. Listen to nature and and my surroundings.
Sure, I don’t drive and/or use cars so we basically do the same thing because I assume for your daily chore trips you drive and listen to music.
Yep, while I have enough service. If I’m good and load a playlist before I leave it usually makes it through the dead zones.
It’s good to enjoy quiet and not be constantly surrounding yourself with noise. It’s an important skill to be able to sit in silence and not rely on external stimulation to feel okay.
Quiet? Nice but almost impossible thing: cars, humans, dogs, children, sirens, bombs… All produce an enormous amount of noise.
That’s true. But finding inner quiet is an even more necessary skill in those situations. But, I’m autistic (only mildly), so I totally get if the stimulation is just too much. Though I went through a lot of discomfort to be okay in environments like that.
Yeah sure, and I do have that skill, and it did take some time to develop it when I was growing up as my parents never ever turned the TV off, but obviously I’d prefer not to have to use it. What I don’t understand is why someone would do it by choice.
It stops taking as much effort eventually. Then you can tune out the noise and think about stuff. Or it never does because everyone is different, I guess, but then you just do what you have to do.
Fair enough.
My thing is that if I’m outside relaxing, I want the birds and bugs and wind. If I can’t have those, headphones aren’t an acceptable replacement, so I’ll fuck off back inside.
If I’m outside as in going about town, I don’t want my hearing compromised. It’s a fate safety issue. Even bone conduction gear is a distraction that I’m not okay with. Like, it isn’t even about being hit by a car or whatever, it could be something as simple as a shopping cart that’s loose banging into me. My crippled ass would be in the floor.
My brain is enough stimulation for me. If I’m out in the world, my brain is going to be going a mile a minute scoping everything out. Doesn’t matter how many times I’ve been in a given location.
I usually commute in in-ears. Sometimes I just want to listen to the world. Its noise, sounds, people talking in train/tram/bus.
I have also noticed that listening to something leaves me out of my own mind. When I used to walk from school to home alone without music, I would think about things in my life much more. So, sometimes I leave my phones in a pocket to focus on my mental.
That makes sense.
As someone who loves music and listens to it every chance I get, I honestly never got into using headphones and walking. It just doesn’t feel right to me. I am also very attentive to my surroundings, and if I feel like I don’t know what’s exactly going on, I really don’t like that feeling. It may also be a generational thing? Im in my 40s, and the headphone market was a bit different 20 years ago when I was younger, and none of that really appealed to me. I never even had an iPod, I owned a zune lol.
When I listen to music it’s the only thing I can do, which makes me anxious about walking into traffic or off a cliff.
I have profound hearing loss, too.
Because I need to be aware of my surroundings. Street harassment, being followed, etc.
That’s pretty crazy. I’m glad I live in a relatively safe area so I never need to worry.
I have lived in safe, average, and sketch areas. It happens in all of them. I’m a 5’ woman. People have followed me into stores.
Shit, I’m sorry, that’s rough. I do wonder how much my height and build shields me from this sort of stuff, I’ve been catcalled before by delivery drivers at red lights and such but not much else, I’m very lucky.
This would be one why I don’t wear headphones outside. Hearing the natural ambience of a space is rewarding.
The other personal reason is that I’m in front of a screen about 12 hours a day and crave those few hours of respite from being hooked up to technology.
Yeah, once, twice - sure. But you’d be insane to want to listen to largely the same sounds over and over on the same walk day after day. That’s peak brainrot tbh.
It depends how much exposure to Tech you have and whether taking a break is important for you. For most people the exposure to constant stimulus is too much.
Phones and technology have essentially eliminated boredom from our lives, and I don’t think that’s a good thing.
I’ve had 16 hours of screen time a day since early childhood. It’s not about the time it’s about how you spend it. I’ve never “mindlessly scrolled” and I can’t even fathom what level of intellectual dishonesty would permit a person to do so.
If that feels fine for you then more power to you. I’m just saying why I don’t personally wear headphones in public.
Even though I am listening to podcasts almost all the time I am outside, doing groceries, commuting, running errands, I can totally get that there are people whose brains are wired differently than mine that need what you might describe as auditory monotony because listening to familiar sounds in a familiar surrounding gives then safety and is easier on their brains.
I don’t find this surprising because most people need some degree of routines or rituals to function so I don’t see why this human tendency to reduce complexity (see: Niklas Luhmann) wouldn’t apply to what you’re listening or not listening to.
This doesn’t have to do anything with brain rot, just that brains work differently and need different stimuli.
Hey if the people ITT don’t owe me the benefit of the doubt for being ever so slightly different than their hyperonline idea of a person - so much so swarm downvotes at the very notion of someone just existing who’s basic experiences contradict their faulty assumptions about what’s what - then I don’t owe them that either.
Huh? I mean… I agree that a lot of people in this thread act surprisingly hostile to you but I wasn’t even referring to those people, just trying to give an answer to your question, that feels kinda underrepresented in this thread: We’re all wired differently and need different forms and levels of stimulus to function properly. 🤷
That much is obvious of course, though that’s not to say I don’t appreciate you saying so, frankly it’s like a breath of fresh air after spending time watching poop be flung by monkeys with a passion for it.
Their hostility is unsurprising to me.
As a trans person I get it all the time in the form of vile transphobia.
This isn’t the same of course, this is harmless, absurdly pointless type of discourse, but it stems from the same place ultimately.
All it takes to threaten the hivemind’s simulacrum and bring out the disciples of the distorted reality fed to the closeminded and the afraid by their holy algorithmic funnels is stating the most inoffensive things plainly as they are without mincing words, and voila - holy war.
??
As in, not a rural area. It’s just a little banter, I meant no offense.
There’s a passage in the book Fahrenheit 451 where the author talks about people keeping themselves distracted with music 24/7. Instead of listening respectfully to great music with great attention, they listen to silly songs.
Also, I remember all the stories I’ve read about people who were mugged because they weren’t paying attention.
This resonates with me. If I’m listening to music, I want to do it with intention. Pop music is made to be background noise in an already noisy environment. Just sit down and listen for a change. The whole album. Used to be that artists wrote with a theme in mind; now they write to be the next TikTok viral song.
Could never do full albums outside of special occasions honestly.
So glad that whole thing is over and artists just post single songs now without it being some whole hour long thing.
I do make my own playlists though and I will organise them quite meticulously, and I will listen to those linearly well enough.
Someone downvoted you, which is ridiculous.
I respect your opinion.
Bit of a subjective take there honestly. Music doesn’t distract me, it keeps the distractions out so I can stay in my head.
Did you write this post deliberately to trigger us? Some examples; The phone died when it should have 7% left, spilling soup at a store, smelly euro village and of course the main question.
This is 100% ironic bait.
But to answer the question, you shouldn’t use headphones because they are dependent on your phone. You use this because it runs on its own D Cells and doesn’t need cell service.
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/ee8ccbde-af75-49ea-9f95-dc3383c6c257.jpeg">
Keeping good music to yourself is rude.
Time to go on a relaxing hike.
Lol, well jokes aside apparently people think that with how many are blasting brainrot tiktoks on full blast on public transport.
Edit: literally downvoted for saying you shouldn’t blast tiktoks on public transport. God help us all. I haven’t kept tabs on Lemmy for a loooong time but this ain’t the same place it was when I left.
Huh? No I didn’t write this to trigger anyone. The walk is only like 10 mins each way, 7% is usually more than enough to last another 10 minutes. The sudden drop to 0% is unexpected and unusual.
I don’t get how spilling the soup at store is meant to be ironic either.
If you drop one of these, they tend to crack open and spill slightly:
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/pictrs/image/7bcf3f30-e226-4143-9c08-e01b52fef018.webp">
Obviously I told a staff member about it and she took it and told me not to worry.
The smelly euro village is a bit of sass on my part, just a more fun way of saying “walkable and modern dense city”.
/boggle
I don’t require constant stimulation.
Did you play Dark Age of Camelot?
Also, I require constant stimulation.
I did.
Then you must be old, as am I. Though my obsession was Everquest.
EQ and later WoW. I didn’t have enough time to de EQ right.
I do, but the leaves rustling and birds chirping provides it for me. OP describing that as a bad thing is what boggles me.
Yeah no kidding!
I like it too, but obviously it gets a bit boring in the same area after the 5th through to the 365th time
ngl, sounds like a skill issue
Ngl, If I wanted regurgitated buzzwords I’d talk to a fucking LLM or god forbid a redditor.
I take one of two routes for an evening walk almost every day. It’s never occurred to me to listen to music or anything else while I do.
I live in a rural area with nice scenery. If you pay attention, it is different every day. Something new is starting to grow/bloom/die back, new birds have arrived or departed, the clouds are different, the air feels different, neighbors sheep are being silly in a different way.
I go specifically at sunset, so I find that very stimulating and no two sunsets are the same. I think about my day, my plans, goals, etc. It’s peaceful.
That’s crazy, I would go nuts from the monotony of something like that.
I don’t live rurally and I love it, I have nice scenery as well, and I notice all the same things and think about all the same things just like you, but keeping one of my senses busied and tied down is important to facilitate mindfulness, not the opposite.
It is interesting to hear your unique and unusual perspective though.
I’m sure you have a bunch of songs you don’t mind hearing over and over, so it’s not that different to enjoy your environment even if it’s mostly the same every day.
Yeah there’s always a limit for me though, once every ounce of dopamine has been extracted from the song/environment, it’s kinda over. Eventually it becomes nostalgic and returns, briefly.
There was an elective college class that I took that was about movies. There were some really meh movies but one that surprised me was called Smoke. This scene here stuck with me the most because it changed the way I look at the areas I see every day.
This post reminded of this Wikipedia article someone shared here a bit ago. If you don’t pay attention, everything becomes the same.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_blindness
do birds chirp on a loop near you? Mine keep a certain cadence but its always unique.
Listen to the voices in my head
If there's nothing interesting to look at, I just continue the plot of the story I'm telling myself. Some people just enjoy a meditative silence, but I'm not one of them, either. I might look like it though.
Are you trolling us?
If not, try getting into meditation, so you can learn to appreciate the moment for what it is, rather than seek constant stimulation.
Technology is ruining humanity, no wonder so many people are lonely and depressed.
Da hell? I’m not lonely or depressed, are you nuts?
Carrying grocery bags to and from my flat isn’t “appreciating the moment”, I do this every other day, it’s just boring and routine so I throw some music on to keep it fun and so I can do something more proactive mentally rather than just stare off towards my feet or surroundings I literally always see anyway.
All I’m saying is it’s clearly a big issue for you not being constantly stimulated if you took the time to create a whole post about this and answer every other stranger’s comment. Meditation is just one of the options to address this issue, the best one IMO. You don’t have to be sad or depressed to practice meditation.
OP’s not here for an answer. They’re here for an argument. That’s why they’re replying to everyone to disagree.
Or maybe I just disagree with the insane amount of judgement and projection aimed at me in this thread for no fucking reason at all, after posting about something fairly common and uncontroversial, therefore I am replying with what I think.
Some of us are actually intellectually honest, we agree with the ideas we agree with and disagree with the ideas we disagree with, not everything is motivated by some animalistic desire for an argument like you seem to imply.
I’d much prefer to agree with likeminded folks or hear some well-reasoned perspectives but alas, I’m not going to agree with shit takes parroting LLM pop-psych influencer buzzword bullshit about muh stimulation muh technology in a condescending tone like I have a problem - when i never implied the opposite even though I easily could have done so and would have if I really wanted a fight - (and I would’ve made an art of it, too).
I will keep replying and stating my point and my case no matter how many cookie cutter morons yap about “meditation” or w/e else comes out their monkey-ass cranium.
I fundamentally don’t care about any of this, but I will keep replying because I want folks here scrolling by this thread - horrified by the behaviour of the commentariat swarm - wondering what they must have smoked that people parrot pop-psych bullshit about dopamine as if it were gospel and hold up their life in a Christian heaven/hell dichotomy like a 50s housewife all clued up on what’s the trendy oppressive shit to spew.
I want those folks to know that the hivemind is frail and weak and cannot stand the smallest challenge, challenge that I pose purely by existing and just saying the inoffensive and largely uncontroversial IRL things I think in a calm manner and that they are not alone in being reasonable and rational and normal people still exist out there in the world, I’m just sorry they have to read through the rest of this thought toilet of a comments section.
Thank you for proving my point.
How have I proven your point? Did you even read what I wrote? Or is that too much to ask from your buzzword spouting ass?
You’re still here five days later trying to provoke an argument. You’re proving it over and over again.
I’m sorry you’re so stressed and frustrated that you feel the need to get online and fight with someone. Have you considered unplugging for a while and going for a peaceful walk?
I created this post on the toilet while I was taking a dump at work.
It’s a random thought that occurred to me. It’s not an issue and it’s not big and I don’t have an “issue” or any fucking “issues”, and it’s fucking insulting for you to insinuate anything of the sort.
Meditate on that you condescending prick.
You also might wanna work on your anger management.
Already have, I found it’s well managed when it’s directed at assorted internet morons setting new records in retarded shit they say.
It’s not so much anger though, more like disappointment. Do better.
I play music in my mind.
I let my thoughts wander, and pay attention to the world around me. I’ve been forced to do this since I can’t wear earbuds while my ear piercings heal.
Ouch that’s rough, it’s why i gave up on ear piercings after I got them, too much comfort sacrificed for little reward
Well, I have a pretty nice setup. iPhone and AirPods. Both Pro, for whatever that’s worth. More marketing than function these days, though it used to mean something. I wouldn’t use a base 16, but base 17 is the best of this year’s lot. And AirPods 4 are good enough for anyone.
Anyway, I think sticking AirPods in your ears in public is kind of a rude gesture. It indicates “don’t bother me.” And I like strangers far less than normal people, neurotypical, whatever you call them. And I’m hard of hearing, so even if I’m not listening to music, I benefit from Apple’s “hearing aid” mode (which I have set up). We also have this thing, it’s buried in accessibility, called Live Listen. Superhuman hearing. Takes whatever the phone mic picks up and amplifies it. I stick the AirPods in my wife’s ears, go into the bedroom and shut the door, place the iPhone on the bed, then go past the bedroom into the bathroom, and whisper a phrase, and she hears it, clear as day. It’s that good. It’s literally spy tech. “Leave” your iPhone hidden and completely out of sight in a room, leave the room, pop in AirPods, hear every word spoken in that room. (When you first set up the feature, it actually tells you not to do exactly that.)
So, yeah. I can hear way better with them on. But mostly I just do what I came to do and GTFO. I listen to the music in the car. Weird stuff like K-Pop (and not just the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack, though that’s good too) or Enya.
That makes sense, I don’t listen to K-Pop and I don’t have/use cars and I get everywhere by walking, so I just listen to music while I do, it gets pretty repetitive and boring otherwise.
Don’t tell this person about the times before the ubiquity of iPods (and later, phones).
OP, might I suggest a “music” detox? Spend a month without the need for headphone delivered dopamine.
Why would I ever do a “music” detox? Why is “music” in quotes? What else would I be listening to?
And what would I do such a thing for?
Turn my grocery shopping into a drag instead of a moment to enjoy and kind of a highlight of the day at times?
If listening to birds chirping and wind blowing through trees while you’re out for a walk is “no stimuli” you have a problem.
Then so does most everyone. It’s one thing to be “out for a walk” with the purpose of a walk, like in the forest or a park, but it’s a whole other thing to be walking for groceries and day after day just zoning out into the same things over and over. That’s insanity.
That’s, erm, life m8.
I’m sorry for you if that’s what life is to you, it’s no wonder mental health issues are common amongst folks these days, the dead eyes and blank stares drooling off into nothingness, eyes wide open, yet seeing nothing, “living in the moment”, yet feeling dead inside. I pity you, little man.
The world is there to be discovered, you just need agency to go and get it, everything is literally at your fingertips, arts, history, geography, literature, science, philosophy, film, games etc.
Music is one way to engage with the arts even while your other senses must be occupied with the chores on procurement of resources that our meat shells sadly require for the foreseeable future due to lack of advances in technology on that front.
But the good news is, It’s why we as a species invented entertainment at all.
Part of the world is the outside, without external stimulus of music or a screen.
I can consume all those things without music playing steadily in my ears, and I would venture to say I prefer to enjoy arts, history, geography, literature, science, philosophy, film, games etc. without steady noise being pumped into my skull. Sometimes I do it while conversing with another person or several people.
At other times, I can listen to music. But I don’t complain that life has lost its lustre because my phone can’t play my music!
If you find lustre in grocery trips, I’m sorry for you.
My ability to zone out and get lost in my head is legendary.
Although, I have used headphones for grocery shopping during busy times because music helps keep me from becoming enraged at stupid people.
I never leave my home without headphones, but often i do not even have music on, just using active noise cancelling to reduce the outside sound. For me it’s all too loud and hectic, too many people talking and cars driving. So even as i do as you do, it has more to do with reducing stimulation than increasing it.
That’s wild, I think I’d find that a hit uncomfy, I’d rather listen to my surroundings than total silence, then again I really dislike ANC.
I don’t use earphones outside because it’s unsafe: Awareness of surroundings is paramount. You say you rarely see a car but not everyone is so lucky. I’m guessing you’re younger, too: When I was a youth, walking with headphones or earbuds meant you had a tapedeck or CD player (and later iPod or smartphone) that could be stolen, making you a more attractive target, as well as one that was easy to sneak up on.
What do I do instead? Listen to the birds sing. Listen to snow or leaves crunch underfoot. Sing! Read a book. Skip! Admire the sun through the trees. Look for cool bugs. Have a conversation with a friend. Rehearse a future conversation in my head. Solve math problems. Philosophize.
I started off with a cheapo MP3 player, then a PSP as a kid, now it’s just my phone.
No offense, I get it bad things happen but where tf y’all live that this is something you even need to worry about? I’m not getting mugged in broad daylight in a city centre wtf.
Yeah I’m not talking about a hike, I’m talking about walking to the grocery store. If I saw someone skipping and singing randomly on the pavement I’d probably ask them if they were alright and maybe call the services.
I obviously can’t teleport my friends or S.O. to me every time I go to the store.
The rest of those I do just fine, while also listening to music. Idk how many times you can listen to “leaves crunch underfoot” before it gets a little stale.
My life may involve a lot less broad daylight than yours, but I’m not just talking about muggings, which are rare in Chicago. Bad drivers are a much more prevalent concern.
That’s just rude.
That’s crazy. I had no idea it’s that bad in America.
Honestly in my 27 years on this earth I have never actually first party witnessed anyone run a red light or anything like that. Seen plenty of crashes along the roads and been witness to a bus driver that decided to off-road around traffic and almost flew into a ditch once as a kid with me and mom in it.
Otherwise I just don’t see them as a concern though.
No it is not. Someone having a mental health event/crisis might actually appreciate you reaching out to them, and to me that would be an indicator of such behaviour. It is not normal behaviour, which can be a sign of some sort of delusion or a psychotic break from reality someone is experiencing.
Not always, of course, just plain oddball people exist, but if I saw a fully grown ass adult SINGING OUT LOUD or SKIPPING down a fucking sidewalk I’d definitely pay attention and keep my distance and my hands around my valuables.
I basically just jack it constantly. Whenever, wherever.
Chad, what can I say.
We’ve all agreed to pitch in and buy you ear buds for Christmas.
No. I want a flashlight.
This is what I prefer, and never wear headphones. Sometimes it's good to turn off the noise to hear my own signal.
It feels like satire to actually say you cannot imagine life without constantly listening to music. Is it satire?
Right? Like, I don’t know maybe try experiencing your surroundings.
Obviously I do, I don’t get why you spun what I said into hyperbole. But what do you do after you’ve experienced the surroundings, and now have to experience them again, and again, and again?
Honestly y’all must be kinda boring people if you’re happy just staring off into nothingness doing nothing at all, just left foot right foot like some kinda robot to and fro on the daily.
I like day dreaming, talking to people I bump into while I’m about, hearing the buzz of people in a pub garden, the music playing in people’s cars as they drive past. I like these things, it makes me feel connected to the place I live. It’s also good to just let your mind wander without constant stimulation.
I absolutely daydream and let my mind wander. That is precisely why I listen to music. Obviously the brain requires stimulation, or we wouldn’t have a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry and the arts nor science nor literature nor much of anything really.
I personally would derive no stimulation from hearing what racist crap some grampa is shouting down at the pub, nor talking to some random about nothing with whom I have nothing in common.
You can’t say with certainty that you’d derive no stimulation from that, since you have not tried deriving stimulation from it.
The multi-billion dollar entertainment industry isn’t there because we need it. It’s there because we like it. What we need is to connect with the real world, which is a skill, and as such requires practice.
Why do you assume I haven’t? Of course I have. I enjoy listening to the sounds of an environment, once, twice, thrice, just not 500 times over and over and over.
I don’t need to connect to the real world, I’m more connected to it than I’d like. I prefer the entertainment industry because it stimulates intelligent thought, and judging by the level of intelligence ITT, y’all need it more than I do.
The Stoics would say you actually shouldn’t seek constant mental stimulation, because letting your brain just “be”, and sitting with boredom, is actually incredibly beneficial for creativity and personal growth. I do have to ask though, as what you’re describing is so relatable and I used to be the same way as you until I taught myself to let my brain relax; is it possible you have ADHD?
The stoics are morons mostly. Yes I have ADHD, and I’m fully medicated for it, thanks.
Don’t listen to them. I have severe adhd. Like they have me in training videos back when I was a kid.
I spend all day everyday with an earbud in my ear. I don’t really like music so it’s podcasts all day everyday.
You can absolutely experience life fully like this. I walk more than anyone I know. I can point out stars in the sky and how the andromeda galaxy would look in the sky. I watch birds, I walk on the beach every night.
And other times I just let my mind wonder wherever it goes. I think about my day, the people I care about, how I can do more and better.
I do it all with an earbud in my ear. Only one, but always one.
Don’t let people tell you how to live.
Yeah I have ADHD too, professionally diagnosed and medicated, but even all the NTs I know don’t just drool off into nothingness, this thread is eye-opening honestly.
It’s not drooling off no more than you’re spacing out in music. It’s just life.
Life is active thought. I don’t space out to music at all, I don’t “space out” period, I stay engaged actively with the world.
My point exactly. When I’m listening to a podcast I’m also 100 percent in the moment. The problem is I’m normally 150 percent of chaos. The podcast bring me down to an enjoyable normal level
My own thoughts and inspirations come to me most often in the quiet times. I like saying hello to the birds. If I feel exhausted, I count my footsteps like you would music. 1234, 2234, 3234, 4234, and so on. I like hearing the winds, the trees crack as they sway, the squirrels hunting their forage. I listen out for other voices, and enjoy feeling connected to the rest of the world, a desire driven by isolation and loneliness, rarely do I find that sense of community in a podcast. The old man who walks my neighborhood every morning, does not have in headphones, he waves and smiles to every passerby, sometimes, his simple gesture, is the only kind/happy moment of my day.
People are different, it may be boring for you, but my ADD keeps my brain busy, and my CPTSD has me want to hear my surroundings vividly. I jump scare very easily, to avoid that, I use the power of, hearing one coming. I know I’m boring, but I don’t think it’s because I don’t listen to stuff while walking. Nothingness carries something within it, the interpretation only being found by the self. And to note, when I was younger I always had music. Things have just changed with age, it’s shocking I know, but as time moves, I want to slow it down, and appreciate everything I can. I crave quiet more than ever.
My husband is completely different, and more like you, where he spends most of his waking hours listening to podcasts and such. People are different, and that doesn’t make one better than the other.
You don’t have to tear others down, to make yourself feel better. I could call you a robot (hypothetically, I’m not, do you) for putting in your headphones like everyone else does. I’m on our states University campus kind of often. The amount of young people with headphones in, eye on screens, even as they get their meals or cross the street, is very odd to see for me. It honestly feels a bit like culture shock everytime I am up there. They walk into staff without looking or apologizing, and if you people watch for an hour or so, you’ll notice the majority plug themselves in. While I don’t think one is better than the other, it’s just different process. I find it amusing you call the ones who unplug robots however. We used to clown of people who had Bluetooth ear pieces in the early 00’s, it was the universal sign someone was a douche. Now everyone has airpods and the like. White socks, white shoes, white earbuds, head down in screen, it’s the standard look at the university by me.
It’s just amusing to see how things have changed in 25 years, from bluetooth sales douches, to today being called a robot for not plugging in, and instead paying attention to one’s environment out and about.
I agree with basically everything you said, but let’s be real - I’m not the one doing the tearing down ITT.
No? Lolwut. I don’t constantly listen to music. I mostly listen to it when outside when I’m on a grocery store walk, because there isn’t really anything else to do except walk to the store and walk back
Really focusing on the wrong thing here. I hope this is satire
So are you gonna explain your point or just keep feigning shock at what is fairly normal and common IRL?
I’m starting to think you must not go outside very much, because when I look around, people who don’t have earphones in are very much the exception, they stand out, hence the question, and on a personal level I honestly don’t even know any people IRL who just march on alone without music or like some podcast or audiobook or something.
My girlfriend does this, all my friends do this, the only people who do not do this are usually some older people with kids when they’re out with their kids, but then again they’re not really on their own, and obviously I wouldn’t listen to music on a walk if I was with somebody for that walk like on the weekends etc.
I didn’t think I needed to explain that talking about experiencing reality as though it were a burden is…odd. Even if half the thread weren’t saying that specifically.
I use headphones a lot, too much, but I would probably seek therapy if I ever had my headphones stop working and subsequently thought hearing the natural sounds of the world around me was notable enough to talk about negatively.
When there’s no novelty of course it’s a burden lol, staring off into things I already have seen and know is not exactly intellectually stimulating or enjoyable.
And idk, it’s not odd at all, we humans have put massive amounts of time and resources into entertainment for this very purpose, the vast majority of people don’t enjoy staring off into nothing till their eyes unfocus, only the extremely online people think that’s what people want.
Like I said elsewhere, the few people who do not have earphones in going about their chores stand out, they are very much in the minority, and they are few and far between and I don’t know a single person like that IRL.
Were this not the case, we wouldn’t even have entertainment, nevermind billions of dollars spent on movies, shows, albums, fiction and non-fiction books, newspapers etc.
Heck I’d go as far as to say that all religion, science and philosophy that did not serve immediate purpose of finding the next meal was created so we could better our lot - which inherently is maximizing happiness, and that inherently includes intellectual stimulation and fulfillment.
I prefer to keep my brain going all the time if I can, it feels much better, always engaging with new art or new ideas inner and outer alike.
This is really, really sad. If this had always been the case, most of the world’s inventions and art, including entertainment, wouldn’t exist today. It’s objectively a fact that people need to be bored/idle to be at their most creative.
You really think artists don’t also consume art? Heck, what inspired me to make music is listening to music.
Also, I do like your misuse of the word “objectively” and “fact”.
No, that’s not true at all. Proneness to boredom is actually a predictor of negative mental health outcomes: www.sciencedirect.com/…/S019188691930217X
Huge strawman. No one would ever ever ever ever ever say that and you’re well aware.
Did you mean to reply to yourself?
If you have any care for your mental health, use any search engine to search the phrase “benefits of boredom”. You will find hundreds of articles telling you what I am.
Meanwhile you ignore an actual cited source. It’s like poetry, or something.
I never said boredom doesn’t have benefits either. I said that your claim of:
Is not objective, it’s not fact, in fact - it’s insane hyperbole and an insane thing to claim in general, very obviously so.
You’re a troll.
I am not. I am very obviously correct. Check sources. Validate the argument. Think. Stop being in denial. Seek help. Stay blocked.
What you’ve done is develop an unhealthy addiction and you think literally everyone else has too. But they haven’t. You literally miss the entire world around you and declared it boring. I assume you’re quite young and developed an addiction to screen time since an age before you can actually remember any other way. Talk to any mental health professional, they’ll tell you what I’m telling you.
Would you like to elaborate on how exactly it’s an addiction and how exactly it’s unhealthy?
Do you want to describe why you think others don’t do it when many others clearly do and it’s obviously the case otherwise there wouldn’t be headphones and millions of hours of music made every day and listened to every day and why it has been a thing since the dawn of civilization itself, if not before, that people create art and consume art?
Why do you think I said “everyone does it”, even when I never said anything of the sort and posted comments directly contradictory to that ITT like the fact I said I personally don’t know anyone else who does not listen to anything outside, (never even making it specific to music!), and I’ve stated that I do actually see people without earphones on - but they are a small minority amongst the earphone-wearing majority.
Would you like to elaborate on how exactly I miss the entire world around me when time and time again I’ve responded to this accusation within this thread by clearly stating that in fact - I do not “miss” much of anything, with one poster even literally creating a little test question I was easily able to answer.
Would you like to elaborate on why you assume I am young? Especially since I’ve literally stated elsewhere in the thread my age, but I’m almost 30, I’ve not had a smartphone until 2012, and had dial-up until after the GFC. I actually remember my childhood quite well and it was a happy one, I remember playing with actual physical toys for most of it and going outside and getting into all sorts of hijinks with the kids around the neighborhood.
Why do you assume I hadn’t spoken to a mental health professional before?
I actually did therapy back when I had a brief bout of the sads due to experiencing institutional violence and medical neglect from the government and developing a gnarly stress response, we went over all sorts of coping mechanisms and healthy mindfulness and all that and not only did she never mention anything about my listening to music outside, but she was quite happy to hear me get excited and talk all about it, this wasn’t some private paid yesman thing either, so she really didn’t have to be nice or even keep me as a client, she’d be paid the same government pay either way.
So:
Is it possible that I do not have an “addiction”, nor have you established in any way how even if I did it would be “unhealthy”?
That in fact - I do not “think literally everyone else has too”, because I never said such a thing?
But that in fact many do as evidenced by the sheer size of the industry and the universal nature of the concept of music and the timeless nature of the arts plus the uniquity of headphones?
That in fact - I do not miss the “entire world around” or much of anything?
That in fact - I never declared it boring, nor made the accidental implication as you have that your world is little outside of a small, immediate environment?
That I have actually never met anyone IRL who finds anything at all about what I wrote in this thread weird whatsoever, nevermind jump to the conclusions you do or make the weird judgemental assumptions you do - and in fact, they listen to music roughly the same amount of time as me, sometimes frankly - more, even though we don’t even listen to anything in common or talk about it?
Is it possible, that in fact, I am not quite young, as I have literally stated elsewhere ITT before you made your response?
That in fact - I have not developed any screen addiction, nor even had the time or option to as a child, and can certainly remember things every other way?
That in fact - as I stated, not only have I talked to a medical professional for unrelated matters and not only was she not seeing it as a problem, but actually saw it as a good thing that I would engage with the world?
That in fact - every point you’ve made so far has been so wildly off-base, every assumption wrong, every reasoning faulty, that maybe, just maybe - if you strain your big brain muscles real hard - you maybe just think some people are just different, and that instead of judgement, you could actually learn to appreciate other people’s experiences, a food for thought, something to uh, meditate on, perhaps.
Is it possible, that maybe - just maybe - you are just plain wrong, on almost every level?
Because If I try on your shoes for just a moment - and pass down judgement like you have to me.
Then to me, it seems that the drivel you pass off as some sort of truth or reliable objective observation is merely armchair buzzword regurgitation undeserving of even the label of analysis, coming from a small, pitiful mind, resorting to judgement and condescension because it can handle little outside of your narrow and distorted view of normal built entirely on p
Wow I finally meet someone without adhd.
What’s it like? I bet it’s awesome. So do you just wake up and get stuff done? It’s like being a wizard I bet.
I have severe ADHD. Rules my life. Doesn’t mean I cannot imagine a moment without headphones.
Damn. One day I’ll meet one.
It was a joke.
I have severe ADHD as well. Not everyone has the same symptoms. Good job on keeping your comment short and concise. I can’t do that.
Do you have trouble memorizing facial features. Can you hold eye contact? Do you know your age without doing math?
There are so many symptoms one can have with adhd. A lot of us get really frustrated if we have to focus on one thing. I need my podcasts. I’m listening to Robert Evan’s talk about Jamaican slavery while writing this.
I can’t just do one thing. That’s crazy to imagine. I love listening to nature, I just do it while doing something else. I’m able to focus on both, I have to focus on both.
The reason op is getting the response they’re getting here is they’re acting like it’s weird not to always use headphones. When in fact it’s not, at all
So was I. I just did it with humor because I already know it’s normal and why I’m the way I am. I’m illustrating an idea in an attempt to maybe make it “click” for op. Because once an idea click hundreds of dominos fall into place. Many ideas click as a result. At least for me. On click leads to a network of clicks. It’s actually kind of beautiful.
It’s absolutely strange to me that you all can do that. I’m just not shocked by it anymore. I’m old. I know that I’m the different one and I know why.
Op isn’t clicking. I approached it “my way” and we’ll see how much clicks for them.
Just is weird in my experience. Again - I rarely see people without earphones in.
I'll get back to this, but I first need to complete my post called "Have you ever spoken to someone in person?"
Huh? Are you saying you haven’t? Or that I haven’t? Because I don’t get what relation this would have to listening to music on a daily walk to and from the grocery store.
Do you mean to imply that instead of listening to music, you’re constantly magically spawning in a conversation companion that accompanies you to and from wherever you need to go and constantly talk to them along the way?
This reads like satire but I assume you’re being serious.
I’m not really doing anything instead. I’m listening in both cases - only the what I’m listening to changes. Listening to music - or podcasts in my case - is a bit of an distraction. I don’t want to be distracted all the time. I’m more present when I’m listening to the world instead, and it gives more space for my thoughts. I never even have the radio on in my car because to me, driving is almost a meditative experience and I like to just sit there in relative silence and focus on the driving itself. I’m stimulated one way or another for the vast majority of the day anyway. I think it’s good to have these intentional moments built into your daily routine where you let yourself be bored. It’s good for you.
That’s interesting, for me music helps me focus, otherwise I just end up endlessly distracted and completely away from the world.
Obviously I understand the point about boredom and am aware of it, only the most brainrotten people think boredom isnt good for you, but I am still bored when walking, out of all the senses, only my ears are occupied, almost everything else is kind of an autopilot, like in those studies where people who drive down the same roads for decades end up being dangerous because their brain is no longer actively processing their surroundings.
For me it’s more like music is a way to direct my thoughts or to set a tone for them. Maybe I’d like to think about something nostalgic, or something new, and music sets the tone and tunes out distractions in the world so I can stay cognitively engaged.
Can you dig more into what you mean by that? I assume you mean distracted by your thoughts, rather than the world itself.
No, distracted by the world, away from my thoughts on the world.
When I pick my music, I set a tone and vibe of the mental journey while my body autopilots to the store and back, then everything else - inner ambitions, dreams, ideas, thoughts, observations immediate and past etc. slots in.
Edit: downvoted for a literal description of my life lol.
I’ve yet to find a device that can survive going 30 meters plus under water. So I’m forced to listen to the world around me.
But seriously there are a lot of times where you need to hear the world around you. Sometimes I go for a walk around town with my earbuds and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I work on a project with music playing and other times it’s not feasible.
Do you live in a pineapple under the sea, by any chance?
Nope but I would love to be that far under water at least once a day.
I think the question is best answered by reversing it. Why do you choose to listen to music?
Now don’t get me wrong I listen to a ton of stuff. I have an mp3 player for air travel and I listen to all kinds of things in my car and for my whole shift at a manufacturing job I used to have.
But out on the street, on a bike or on the trails I never have any music on. From a practical standpoint it’s simply safer to be aware of what’s going on, but that’s not the point for me.
I use that time to just let my mind wander and internalize info I learned that day or to look back on things that happened recently. That boredom is soon replaced with thoughts and daydreams and feelings and memories. And it’s nice to see my part of the world as it is, without any filter and seeing how places and people change day by day.
Same exactly for me. I listen to tons of music at work and at home on my own time. But never outside.
I don’t use a car, almost all of my travel is by walking. So I listen to music for the same reason you listen to anything in your car or at your job.
But for me it is also a way to forget about work and tune out the shit around me and focus my inner thoughts and inner life and also observe the world and get inspired.
Y’all must live some pretty unsafe places if you need to pay attention to your surroundings that much. My condolences.
I don’t listen to music in my car or at work, music is more of an active thing for me. I want to pay attention to it and sing along! If I’m focusing on something else, like driving, I just tune out the music anyways. Sometimes I’ll get stoned and play the OoT soundtrack in the background while I draw, but that’s about it. I don’t even think I own headphones, unless I have some packed away with my old iPod nano. It’s pretty cool how we all experience the same world in such different ways, isn’t it?
I try to pay attention to my surroundings because I like being alive. When I do wear headphones I put them in pass through mode.
I don’t listen to things necessarily day to day. If I commute regularly on a train I may. I may be in my head or I may pay attention to the world. I do like trying to be present. When I walk my dog its about walking my dog so I let her go where she may, mostly, and watch her and wonder about what she is experiencing with her superior sense of smell and if she will notice that person and animal way over and be happy to see a friend. When running errands I think about what I need and where in the store I will go to retrieve it. I check the price per unit maybe doing a bit of math to determine the best value. While waiting in line may people watch a bit. Can think about something I read hear or saw on the news or how I will approach the next segment of a game im playing.
I have a lot of stuff going on in my head that needs my full attention. Dinner planning, a work problem that I’ve been slowly chipping away at, toying with some random ideas, etc.
I understand that for some people, especially if you have ADHD, it can be easier to attend to those thoughts with music and other stimuli present. That is not the case for me.
I actually pay attention to my environment? I don’t walk onto a busy road without looking?
I usually choose to have a podcast or music on, but sometimes it’s really nice to just appreciate my surroundings. I like to hear birdsong, or the wind, the rain. Even cars passing. It’s nice to be grounded in the world.
Even when I have music, I spend most of my time when I walk (which is a lot) not looking down at the ground. I look around, and I try to appreciate the little things. The other day, I noticed a really, really polished front door on a house I was walking past. The wood was so bright red and all of the metal was this gleaming silver, it was really striking! There are wild parakeets in the city I live in, so getting the chance to see these beautiful green birds swoop overhead is a treat, too. Where I live is quite hilly, so getting to see what I think are beautiful views of the urban sprawl interspersed with big tree plumages in the green spaces is pleasant, too. Sometimes it’s quite imposing, it’s not always a pretty and cheery sight, but it’s always beautiful.
When I don’t have music or podcasts playing, I feel like I can appreciate those sights a bit more. Picking up on snippets of other people’s lives is interesting, and I find my mood is easier regulated when I just ground myself in the world around me rather than disappearing up into my head with the podcast or music playing. If I have sound on that I focus on, I’ll often not really remember my walking to and from work, but if I’m just experiencing the world, I’ll usually find something memorable. I find that slowing down and taking the time away from tech has been nice for me, sometimes.
I think there are different seasons of life and different moods for wanting to listen to the world around. When I got into backpacking it becomes a pretty conscience decision when deciding to listen to a podcast or some music or go for 5 hours of silence. Live your life and go with the flow. If your tunes die, find a way to make a life lesson in some way or fashion that makes sense to you. Our ancestors were stuck with nothing but themselves and local community so I guess connect with your primal self.
Interestingly enough, I’ve been suspecting I am on some sort of spectrum, but I typically feel like you do. Like I need to be listening to something when going for a walk because walking itself is inherently a boring activity.
But there have been certain days where I feel entirely different. I’m less in my head and more out of it, soak in my environment more, pay more attention to my posture, the way I’m stepping with my feet, the sounds around me, etc. And it’s not me forcing it either, I just feel genuinely more interested in that stuff.
I’ve been told I live in the future a lot, but on those days, I feel “normal”. Like, I’m more interested in and living in the present, instead of daydreaming all the time.
Not my place to say, so please take my comment with a grain of salt:
IMO, If you are avoiding living in the present, it might be important to define the emotion behind why. It could be a sign that you need sorta big changes in your life.
Really? What emotion have I been feeling since the age of like, 5, up to the age of 30?
Lol he’s not avoiding living in the present, neither are we, take your armchair psychologist crap outta here. It’s you who’s so simple you’re okay with bored contentment. It’s no wonder you people get hijacked by algos so easily, shit is hardly exciting to me because I cherish and nourish my life.
Outside? I try not to go there.
Sorry OP, you got downvoted in so many comments, some of which I thought was undeserved, but some of it is deserved. You asked a question, but came off as wanting to prove everyone else who doesn’t listen to music is crazy. Everyone is different, you do you. I think it’s very important to train brain to be content without any stimulation and therefore, I think, I play music in my brain, I plan rest of my day or next day, and most of all I introspect when I’m walking around.
And my life isn’t even complicated and I find tons of things to Introspect, so hard for me to imagine people get bored with introspection, but you do you. If boredom is such a massive problem for you because of ADHD, perhaps carry a power bank.
I appreciate the sentiment but you also are making some weird assumptions:
I said it’s not a big deal.
Normally I’d think that yeah, given the negative reception I must’ve phrased myself badly, but honestly after reading it all, I think y’all invented this in your heads.
It’s because you think the opposite - that anyone like me is crazy, so when I act like I am normal - you take it as an insult.
And I am normal, as far as I can tell, once more - this is the only place offline or online that anyone had an issue with this, and I’m not gonna set expectations for normality based on a hyperniche hipster forum thread.
Outside with other people is a dangerous place. Environmental awareness is needed. You’ll need your eyes and ears to sense danger.
I don’t listen to music or watch TV
I look at and listen to what’s going on around me, and think about what I see and hear.
I don’t even listen to music on a regular basis when I’m inside. It’s more something I would do actively from time to time, say a couple of times per month.
I never listen to music. When I’m running errands, I listen to the birds and the wind. I watch the leaves change colors. I chat with people I know by sight. I stop by stores I don’t need anything from just to chat with the owners. I meet friends doing their shopping and we decide to go to see a play next weekend. I sit down at a terrasse to have coffee with my kid’s former piano teacher. Think the movie Amelie, but in small-town France instead of Paris. I love my life.
Sometimes I enjoy just basking in the dark morass of my own thoughts.
I’m taking steps to stop myself consuming content constantly so I’ve stopped listening to podcasts when I’m out. If I’m on a long train or plane journey in the future I’ll probably bring my earphones along but only then. Now I just walk and think.
Yeah I don’t listen to podcasts, but art isn’t content and music is definitely the former.
I’m easily distracted and am usually occupied with my own thoughts. So, not hearing traffic, other people, and my general surroundings is actually stressful for me; relying on vision alone would be dangerous. I do a lot better keeping my ears open so I can relax, muse about this or that in my head, and let any sudden sounds or irregularities in my environment catch my attention.
Edit: By musing, I’m actively problem-solving fix-it situations in my house, thinking about software projects I have going, exercising mindfulness for better mental heath, self-assessing where my body aches/hurts, building fictional narratives for D&D, and so on. It’s seldom idle time up in here.
I’ve got a layer of conscious that constantly plays music in the background of my mind…personal private organic music machine.
Weird how you’re getting shit on for asking a question in “no stupid questions.” Fucking NT people acting high and mighty.
Aye
We all know what’s really going on ITT.
Ableism and then acting like we’re the assholes for defending ourselves.
I don’t even have a disability or anything. I have mild ADHD at best and I’m pretty medicated for it.
I like music, love music, keep it on in the house and car but do not like headphones and wouldn’t dare use them on a walk or run because I’d get run over by a car.
I like the sound of the city, the birds singing, the crows cawing, kids yelling, even the distant sirens and LOVE the distant music of parties, so much. Cars going by with music. Incidental sound is engaging IMO not boring.
Yeah if being runover was a concern I’d definitely also not listen to music for sure.
I do actually like those sounds as well, just not every day on my way out for chores obviously.
It’s interesting how some people by way of their responses seem to suggest “a walk” and “a run” are something special a unique, and not their main and only way of getting around, probably as a result of car-centric design of some places and zoning laws?
I take it that’s the case for you as well, because of how you phrased “a walk or a run”? I’ve personally never gone for “a run” as an adult, but I rack up thousands of steps daily just getting my groceries home so I can eat food.
I bike to work and walk to anything close (have electric bike so that is my 1-6 mile ride usually, and under a mile I use my feet.). Also go for a Pokemon Go walk often, not to go anywhere. Or walk the dogs if husband can’t. A Run though, that I only do for exercise, and not if I can avoid it.
Car, I have one but my kid takes it to university so I don’t usually get to drive it. And I do prefer moving at a human pace, and not having to park the car.
ETA you asked about car-centric and yes oh yes my city is exactly that. Which is why I worry about getting run over.
And another add - I do kind of get where you are coming from - I can’t let go of thinking without enough to focus on but not too much. That is why I loved Jazzercise, not kidding. Exactly the right amount of paying attention that I could achieve “flow” and just dance, following so I didn’t have to think, not so complex I had to think, but complex enough I didn’t think about anything else. Running was SO boring. Real dance class too complex. Going out to dance, have to decide how to move. But to stop thinking here while moving around town is hazardous as fuck.
Do you ever spend even a second with your own thoughts?