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?
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.
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.
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.
not some smelly euro village either
??
As in, not a rural area. It’s just a little banter, I meant no offense.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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”.
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’ve got a layer of conscious that constantly plays music in the background of my mind…personal private organic music machine.
I play music in my mind.
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.
I look at and listen to what’s going on around me, and think about what I see and hear.
Outside? I try not to go there.
It feels like satire to actually say you cannot imagine life without constantly listening to music. Is it satire?
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.
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: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S019188691930217X
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Just birds chirping, wind blowing, leaves rustling, all as I walked the same path I walk all the time<
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.
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.
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.
