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The Psychology Behind Headphones
pvt_medic writes "The BBC has an interesting article today about portable music players and personal space. The article is on the research that Dr Michael Bull has done on portable music players. He analyzes them as a "tool whereby users manage space, time and the boundaries around the self." This article goes on to analyze the social and psychological aspects related to listening to music in public with headphones. A good quick read for those who do this."
Some women use earphones to deflect unwanted attention, finding it easier to avoid responding because they look already occupied.
People in general do this. I work at a technical college and see numerous students with headphones on (I don't believe I have seen earbuds recently). I see absolutely no reason for people to be listening to music while in any sort of educational institution. I would guess that would be the equivalent of someone's body languge -- showing crossed arms during a conversation.
I think that people are shy enough as it is. We do very little REAL social interaction as it is. Do we really want to become even more anti-social creatures by promoting music as some sort of "shield" from the outside world? Remember, the average person spends about 50% of their daily free time at home watching TV.
Music is something I like to enjoy with others at concerts and at home. Music is something that should be passed on to others. Nothing like finding a new genre of music you have never heard before because a friend had it playing in the car or in his house.
Just my worthless ramblings,
He analyzes them as a "tool whereby users manage space, time and the boundaries around the self."
Or could it be that they just want to listen to music?
Nah....
I don't see any empirical results. Have any experiments that he's done been reproduced? What are his methodologies.
Sounds like junk-science to me. The guy has a hypothesis. That's about it.
Here's my hypothesis: "Music sounds good. Noise sounds bad." Can someone write up an article on my thoughts? TIA.
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Wasn't the original walkman to shield the wearer from unwanted sound?
I know I need to use my headphones at work to shield myself from the disturbing noises from the nearby cubicles. Pointy hair people blabbing about pointless things, people clipping finger nails, eating, etc.
The whole reason humanity left africa and then spread out across the entire planet, is because most people would prefer to be left alone. We all want, for the most part, our own 100 acre plots of land.
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I concur with the above reply. Please, please, if you are a young person who likes loud music, I beg you to be careful with your ears, and not make the mistakes that so many of my generation made. Maybe you think that you'll never, ever be in your thirties or forties and wishing that the ringing in your ears would go away and that you could hear again, but if you're blasting music into your ears, you will be. Doesn't matter if it's through headphones or that crazy car stereo that goes thump thump thump and scares people, the damage you do to your ears is permanent, and spending the second half of your adult life having to ask everyone to speak up and repeat themselves because of hearing loss suck-diddly-ucks.
Please believe me, kids, you will be thirty years old one day, and how well you are able to hear at that time depends very much on how well you treat your delicate, sensitive ears today.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
I'd never think of asking a question or making small talk.
Well, I agree that you are entitled to your own privacy and to not be disturbed at times, but you see people carrying these mp3 players everywhere. Whenever I go on the subway, every fourth person on the train is listening to music on their headphones.
It comes to the point where people put on headphones wherever they go (as you said).
Quoth the article, "listening to music acts as a shield, aura or cocoon."
Let me make an analogy of an analogy. Perhaps, as technologically oriented individuals, we can consider this as being a firewall, or perhaps a blanket spam filter. The problem is, it filters everything out. It's like making a habit of putting a DND sign at your office or dorm entrance - it prevents you from interacting, having wonderful experiences.
As I said in another post, life is worth living because it is dynamic and unpredictable. You will never know what you are missing if you choose to block out the world on a consistent basis. Maybe I am sitting on that subway train next to you, maybe we have some common interests. Maybe I have some interest tidbit of news, or a perspective on life or some other issue. But know what? That's too bad, because you'll never get to hear it, since I won't think to disturb you from listening to your music.
Here's some advice: you're entitled to listen to your music, but once in a while get a little adventurous and take them off.
I really don't mind if people stand by and overhear what I am listening to if they're really that interested in my tastes, but I know that not everyone will want to listen to my own music (or "noise"). I know I'm not comfortable at all about listening to someone else's music thumping through my head unwillingly, whether in public or at home, as I find it not only distracting to my work but also very counterproductive when I'm trying to take a break from a very long day... sort of a "psychological rape" perhaps, after being forced to listen to someone else's thumping bass for hours upon hours in my very own home.
I just don't want to add to the mess. I don't like it when I have to deal with it, and I don't want to make anyone else feel miserable either.
Walking around in public with headphones isn't something new.
People were doing this twenty years ago with a Sony Walkman casette tape player. It was considered rude back then and it was going to make you go deaf back then. Nothing has changed except that it's coming from a tiny digital memory chip instead of a casette tape.
I recently purchased a set of quality headphones to shield my music from my neighbors - who live a thin wall of drywall away. Whenever anyone watches a movie at night or listens to their favorite songs I can hear it very well - the bass especially so.
I've complained a number of times and now the level has been brought in to check but every now and then I hear them.
I want to listen to my music, too. Sometimes loudly. But how do I listen to my music my way without being hypocritical and by being respectful to my neighbor?
My Solution: Headphones. It was an apiphany to me. While I was in the US Navy onboard a submarine, whether at sea or in the barracks, we all had headphones and peaceful bliss listening to our music without someone threatening to float test your stereo equipment or CD player.
For those of you who live in a condo, like I do, for the sake of your neighbors and yourself, buy a set of headphones. It's a whole lot easier than explaining to the Condo Association why noise complaints are being issues against you - and in my association, the bylaws are written such that noise complaints can get your sorry butt tossed out into the street. Permenently!
That's interesting. I know that when I lived in Sweden and walked to the bus stop about a mile or so from my house, each song would start in a given space of 10 or 20 feet each time (if I started the tape from the beginning when I left my house). I had 15 tapes I listened to regularly and by the time my year was up, I knew almost exactly when each song would be playing on the walk. In fact, every time I hear Everclear's "Daughter of Mine" I think of a sharp turn in the path because that song always played then.
As far as the grandparent goes, this study may not be of great use for your average Joe, but there is something to be said for pure research on a topic that interests you. Academia should not be about strictly practical things. While I make no promises, I bet some of the most important leaps forward in tech were discovered because a researcher was trying to do something unrelated but happened across something brilliant.
I don't agree, though. I don't think it's like a firewall in that it's not content-ignorant, while a firewall is. When I see someone I do want to talk to, or something I do want to interact with, I turn them off and take them out of my ears. And by doing this, I produce a powerful effect; I've gone from the "Not interested" stance of having headphones on to the invitation to interact that is clearly demonstrated by obviously choosing to lower the shield for a particular person. And I am able to make topical decisions as to when and why I'll do that based on my other senses, which are not at all affected by the headphones. So it's more like a good spam filter than a firewall.
:)
And honestly, when was the last time a total stranger came up to you on the street to tell you something you wanted to hear?
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yet we still want to be intimately connected to others somehow. the proliferation of things like friendster, livejournal, instant messaging have proven that.
Even in the old days, people did not see each other all the time - once a week for church, or seeing people at the store.
People do want connection - but connection that is controlled. Even IM you can shut down or choose to ignore. I would say intimately is an incrorect term - asynchronously is perhaps a more accurate way to define the kind of connection people want. connections that are instant to them, with inbound connections that can be controlled.
Using music players in a setting with other people around is just a way of exerting some control over physical interactivity with others.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
People shouldn't be forced into social interaction if they don't want. It isn't inherantly healthy. If you haven't heard about introverts and extraverts, read up on it. The basics are that introverts like to keep to themselves, extraverts like to interact with others. Most people fall somewhere along a continium in between.
Neither is an inherantly better or correct way to be. American culture tends to put more value in being an extravert, Japanese culture tends to put more value in being an introvert. Really, we just need to have respect for differen't people's different comfort levels and likes and dislikes.
For example I am generally an introvert. My idea of a good weekend is spending time at home sleeping, watching movies, playing computer games, and maybe going out with a small group of friends. If I go to something like a party, I like it to be small, no more than 15 people, and almost all people I know. My sister is a huge extravert. She works as a bartender is ALWAYS going out, loves gigantic parties, wants everyone to know who she is, etc.
We are both happy, well adjusted people. I enjoy my life, she enjoys hers. Neither of us would enjoy the other's life. She would go insane sitting around at home for a weekend and I get really drained by having to go out all the time.
So if the introverts want to use music as a way to shield them, that's fine and not an inherantly unhealthy thing. You can, of course, go to far. People do need SOME human contact, but that doesn't mean dealing with stangers. Some people have a very small comfort zone that doesn't easily grow to include new people. That is fine and that is normal.
I think you're transforming your desires for an iPod into anger and frustration directed at those people who do own an iPod.
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It is a true epidemic. In Sweden, 10 per cent of the population has tinitus. That's a scary number. I agree with the parent post, it's no fun going half your life wishing that the ringing will stop--belive me, it's even less fun doing this since you're 18. Remember the thread on Chernobyl where people said it was eerily quiet in those abandoned cities? That didn't really get to me since my internal noise floor is so high. It doesn't have to be very quiet until the ringing is enough to get me crazy. So unless you want to go through your life unable to enjoy quietness, constantly afraid of loud sounds (further damage happens more easily) and often trouble sleeping--be careful with that volume.
People who commute by car shield themselves from others in a steel cocoon. When they nearly bump into someone, or get stuck behind a slower driver, it results in an outpouring of anger.
So you could say that commuting on foot and by mass transit can be more pleasant than taking a private car, and with the headphones you get a good approximation of the privacy of the car, but without the road rage.
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Every time he does that, call him from your own cell phone. When he hits flash to pick up the newer call, continue with, "...As I was saying..." You could even go so far as to engage him in conversation as you're dialing his cell phone, but you'll have to experiment on him to determine how he deals with more than one incoming call on his phone.
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My working day is spent in a cubicle farm. All day long I hear multiple phone conversations going on all day around me.
I am a developer - which means I need to concentrate, very deeply at times. The background noise level is high enough that I can actually hear various conversations for cubes that are close to mine. This can be distracting particularly when you are trying to formulate an idea or write code, as you will find yourself start to listen to the conversations, instead of following your internal dialogue.
To combat this, I sometimes don headphones and get some music going to drown out the conversations (preferably music without any words).
Ideally, developers should have doors that close to block out these distractions - they would be much more productive. Unfortunately, management doesn't think that way...so productivity suffers.
I just want some silence so my mind can think. Until they make the 'cone of silence' generally available in cubicle farms, earphones and music will have to do.
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The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
"Maturity is achieved when you realise the volume control goes down as well as up." - Someone whose name I forget.
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