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The Psychology Behind Headphones

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the thinking-about-it-way-to-hard dept.

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."

7 of 395 comments (clear)

  1. anti-social behaviors... by garcia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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,

    1. Re:anti-social behaviors... by imAck · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On the contrary, I have spent many hours in group settings working on software projects at an educational institution. For one, I just write better code when I have some music to provide a rhythm to code to. For another, it's helpful to have a way to be isolated when working on a very difficult problem, but be able to return to the group setting as easily as taking off my headphones. I _do_ agree that as a culture we have become physically isolationists, but people have been using newspapers on subway commutes since the 1800's as a "shield" in much the same way. This is not a brand new social apparatus; Just a new instantiation of it.

      --

      It's hard to tell the cool to chill, my favorite hotel room has a view to an ill.

    2. Re:anti-social behaviors... by DougMackensie · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And since when is anti-social behavior immediately seen as a negative thing. Is it a bad thing that Henry David Thoreau (walden) worked best when he removed himself from society? Is it a bad thing when Andrew Wiles (fermat solver) would hole himself up in his attic by himself to concentrate on his proof? Is it a bad thing when a CS student wants to put his headphones in the computer lab to block out all the other converstations (sometimes in different languages) around him so that he can concentrate?

      Why can't normally social people find auditory solitude in their headphones without people accusing them of being "shy, sheilding, or anti-social"? Realize that people work differently from yourself, and having the headphones on can make them work better?

  2. Post-modernist crap by bloggins02 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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....

  3. Dude, people are not urban creatures by tjstork · · Score: 5, Insightful


    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.

    --
    This is my sig.
    1. Re:Dude, people are not urban creatures by cap'n+foolsy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      yet we still want to be intimately connected to others somehow. the proliferation of things like friendster, livejournal, instant messaging have proven that.

      while i agree that i would like to own a 100 acre plot of land, it would be terribly lonely without someone to help me cultivate it, don't you think?

      or is it better to say, rather, that we would prefer to be left alone with people we like and people who are like us?

      --
      It might look like I'm standing motionless, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away
  4. Re:Headphones rocks, but... by The+I+Shing · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.