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?
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.
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.
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
Just is weird in my experience. Again - I rarely see people without earphones in.
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.
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.
We’re 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.
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 projecting externally the insecurities and issues deep within?
And it is your first steps to reflect and analyze what went wrong, why you treat people like this, how you can intellectually be honest and deal with and confront this narcissstic superiority complex that you unleash on any passerby who challenges your mental gospel?
That perhaps, it is worth critically reflecting on why anyone would treat people like this, online and god-forbid, IRL, if you do, and perhaps speak to a professional, or maybe just a friend, if you have one, about that?
Hey, at least you’re not alone, many other snoozefest normadrones ITT for you to share that experience with, provided they are real people of course, and are not what they show themselves to be - low context length LLMs.
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: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S019188691930217X
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.
Huge strawman. No one would ever ever ever ever ever say that and you’re well aware.