I didn't listen to music for 3 months (a science experiment)
Summary
TLDRIn this insightful video, Lauren shares her three-month experiment of abstaining from music to study its impact on her life. She reveals her struggle with music addiction, the emotional confusion it caused, and how the absence of music heightened her sense of presence and self-awareness. Lauren's experience led her to value silence and suggests a 'music detox' for those with similar dependencies, while advocating for intentional and healthy music consumption.
Takeaways
- 🎧 Lauren conducted a personal experiment by not listening to music for three months to understand its impact on her life.
- 📚 She removed all music apps from her devices and avoided playing music through other platforms like YouTube.
- 🌧️ For studying, she used nature sounds like fire and rain to replace music, listening to them on her iPod Shuffle.
- 🔁 The primary reason for the experiment was Lauren's self-identified music addiction, which she felt was affecting her daily life.
- 🏃♀️ Music addiction was defined by a craving, loss of control, and persistence despite negative consequences.
- 🌐 Lauren felt that music was interfering with her presence and ability to focus on her surroundings.
- 💔 She also experienced emotional confusion, where music either numbed or exaggerated her emotions, preventing her from accurately processing her feelings.
- 🌲 The experiment led to a heightened sense of presence and appreciation for the simple details in life, such as conversations and nature sounds.
- 💭 Lauren gained emotional clarity, as the absence of music forced her to confront and understand her emotions more accurately.
- 🎶 Despite the benefits, Lauren recommends not going beyond two months without music, as she experienced negative effects like constant mumbling and making bird noises.
- 🌳 She plans to reintegrate music into her life in a more intentional way, designating specific tasks for listening and avoiding it during others, like being in nature or with people.
Q & A
What was the purpose of Lauren's experiment?
-Lauren conducted a science experiment to understand the effects of not listening to music for three months on herself.
What did Lauren do during her experiment?
-Lauren deleted all music apps from her devices, refrained from playing music or other sounds through websites like YouTube, and used nature sounds like fire and rain for studying.
Why did Lauren decide to stop listening to music?
-Lauren stopped listening to music due to her music addiction, lack of presence, and emotional confusion caused by music.
What are the three principles of addiction defined by Shaffer et al., 2000?
-The three principles are 1) a craving or compulsion to do something, 2) loss of control when it comes to this behavior, and 3) persistence of behavior despite accruing negative consequences.
How did Lauren's experience with music affect her emotional clarity?
-Lauren found that music was confusing her emotions by either numbing them or intensifying them, which led to a lack of emotional clarity.
What did Lauren learn about music and autobiographical memories?
-Lauren learned that music helps in recalling specific moments of life and is important in the construction of autobiographical memories, as stated in a 2008 paper.
What benefits did Lauren experience from not listening to music?
-Lauren experienced heightened creativity, a sense of wonder, increased presence, and emotional clarity during her experiment.
What advice does Lauren have for those who might be overly dependent on music?
-Lauren suggests trying a music detox, even if just for a day or a specific task, to observe how it feels and to appreciate the richness of silence.
How does Lauren plan to approach music listening in the future?
-Lauren plans to designate specific tasks for music listening, avoid Spotify premium to be more intentional, and have set tasks where she will not listen to music, such as when in nature or with other people.
What limitations does Lauren acknowledge in her experiment?
-Lauren acknowledges that she is not a musician, it's hard to avoid music entirely in public places, and the sample size of her study is one, making it less reliable.
Outlines
🎼 Music Addiction and Experiment
In this video, Lauren discusses her personal experiment of abstaining from music for three months to understand its impact on her life. She outlines the video into six chapters, starting with her actions to remove music from her daily routine, including deleting music apps and avoiding music on websites. She then delves into her reasons for the experiment, primarily her music addiction, which she defines using principles from a 2010 study. She also discusses the negative effects of music on her presence and emotional clarity, citing studies on music consumption and its effects on daily life.
🌧️ Reflections on Music and Life
Lauren explores the role of music in her life and its influence on her emotions and memories. She recalls how music has been a part of her life since the age of eight, helping her recall specific moments and periods. She references a 2008 paper that highlights music's importance in autobiographical memory construction. During her music-free period, she experiences a resurgence of childlike traits like creativity and wonder, and a heightened sense of presence, appreciating simple activities and the sounds of nature. She also gains emotional clarity, as the absence of music forces her to confront her feelings without the influence of music.
📈 The Ups and Downs of Music Detox
Lauren shares her experiences and lessons learned from her music detox, which she graphically represents as a relationship between happiness and time spent without music. Initially, she faced discomfort and withdrawal symptoms, but as time passed, she began to enjoy the benefits of being music-free. However, she cautions against extending the detox beyond two months, as she experienced negative effects like constant mumbling and an urge to fill the silence, which she humorously compares to the character Rapunzel.
🎶 Advice on Intentional Music Listening
Despite her experiment, Lauren is not against music. She acknowledges its universal importance and health benefits, as supported by studies. Her advice for those who might be over-consuming music is to try a music detox, even if just for a day, to understand their relationship with music. She suggests setting tasks for music listening and avoiding it during certain activities like being in nature or with others. She plans to be more intentional about her music listening in the future, designating specific tasks and times for it.
🌳 Embracing the Richness of Silence
Lauren concludes her video by emphasizing the importance of silence and the lessons she learned from it. She acknowledges the limitations of her experiment, such as not being a musician and the difficulty of completely avoiding music in public spaces. She encourages viewers to try not listening to music for a task or a day to appreciate the silence and to be content with less. She also invites viewers to check the video description for more information and ends her video with a reminder to embrace the richness of silence.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Music Addiction
💡Presence
💡Emotional Confusion
💡Autobiographical Memories
💡Childlike Traits
💡Sense of Presence
💡Emotional Clarity
💡Music Detox
💡Intentional Listening
💡Silence
💡Contentment with Less
Highlights
Lauren conducted a personal science experiment by abstaining from music for three months.
Removed all music apps from her devices and avoided playing music through other platforms.
Used fire and rain sounds for studying instead of music.
Lauren's music addiction led her to undertake this experiment.
Cited studies showing the ubiquity of music consumption and its impact on daily life.
Defined addiction based on craving, loss of control, and persistence despite negative consequences.
Noted emotional confusion as a result of using music to mask or intensify feelings.
Discussed the complex reasons behind listening to sad music when already feeling sad.
Learned that music aids in recalling specific life moments and constructing autobiographical memories.
Experienced a resurgence of childlike traits such as creativity and wonder.
Gained a heightened sense of presence and appreciation for the world without music.
Found simple activities became more enjoyable without the distraction of music.
Achieved emotional clarity by not using music to cloud judgment about feelings.
Suggested that intentional and healthy music consumption leaves room for silence.
Advocated for a music detox to better understand one's relationship with music.
Recommends setting tasks for when music is allowed and when it is not, to be more intentional.
Plans to use an iPod with a limited selection of songs for future music listening.
Will avoid music when in nature or in conversation with others to appreciate the environment and human interaction.
Recognizes limitations due to not being a musician and the small sample size of the study.
Encourages embracing the richness of silence and being content with less.
Transcripts
hey guys it's Lauren so I didn't listen to music for three months for a science experiment on
myself and in this video I'm going to tell you my experience with that the outline for today
chapter 1 is explaining exactly what I did chapter 2 why I stopped listening to music chapter 3 what
I learned and going through my experience and what I gained from it and everything chapter 4 my
advice for you chapter 5 how I personally want to approach music listening in the future and chapter
6 limitations and conclusion so chapter 1 is on this sticky note because um it didn't need a whole
page but exactly what I did is first I deleted all music apps off all of my devices and then I didn't
allow myself to play music or other sounds through YouTube or other websites and for studying since I
need some kind of sound for that I downloaded fire sounds and rain sounds to my iPod Shuffle and then
listened to that with these headphones so that brings us to chapter 2 why did I stop listening
to music and the first one is the most notable and that was because I had a music addiction
and even though things like internet addiction, video game addiction, and social media addiction
are talked about very frequently these days I think music addiction is something that
is less talked about and this was a really interesting paper I found from 2010 and it says
"in today's world music consumption is ubiquitous and it appears that some individuals especially
among younger people are unable to function effectively in daily life without continued
access to their music of choice" and the way I'm defining addiction is by these three principles
laid out by Shaffer et al, 2000 and that's 1 a craving or a compulsion to do something 2
loss of control when it comes to this behavior and 3 persistence of behavior despite accruing
negative consequences this study in 2010 was a study where participants were deprived of
music for a set amount of time and they were were asked to reflect on their experience and
one quote really stood out to me one of the participants said that they felt "restless,
frustrated, or irritated when without music" and that's exactly how I kind of felt when I didn't
have music because I was addicted to it and could not handle being without it for one second so the
second reason why I stopped listening to music is the lack of presence you know because I was so
addicted to listening to music it was very hard for me to stay in the present and then focus on
things that are actually happening around me instead of just focusing on the music that's
playing to drown absolutely everything out and not listening to anything else or paying attention to
anything else that is happening around me and the third reason why I stopped listening to music is
emotional confusion now this is an interesting one so let me explain basically I felt as though music
was really confusing my emotions and there's two ways that this occurred for me exhibit a I would
feel some kind of negative emotion and then I would just not want to think about it so I
would just throw music on whatever I was feeling in order to feel better or just escape from what
I'm feeling and I call this the numbing of emotion or exhibit B I'm like a little bit sad I have some
kind of slight negative emotion and then so I play sad music in order to exaggerate the
current emotion that I feel in order to intensify it into something that's not even there and the
reason why people listen to sad music when they're sad is definitely very complex subject so let
me talk about it for a little bit but a paper by Kawakami et al., 2013 said "listening to sad music
induces ambivalent emotions" so you have kind of conflicting emotions and even though the music
itself is sad you may feel some kind of comfort from it or some kind of happiness from it because
you're romanticizing your emotions but I'm not talking about listening to sad music when you're
sad I'm talking about listening to sad music when you have some like slight negative emotion that
you just need to think about but instead of unpacking it you're throwing sad music on top
of it and then you're completely identifying with this song of choice instead of actually
evaluating your current state so those are kind of the two ways that you can become confused
about your emotions by listening to music now that brings us to chapter 3 what did I learn so
this first finding is kind of very subjective so I'm going to explain it the best I can so do you
remember the first time you started listening to music? like the first time you actually you know
sought out music on your own because for me I was around 8 years old when one of my friends was like
do you listen to music and I was like no from the age of8 onwards I listened to different kinds of
music for different periods of my life when I listen to different songs I remember different
periods of my life in which I listen to that song most frequently and so music helps you
recall very specific moments of your life in which your life was most connected to a particular kind
of music or a song and a 2008 paper says "because of its near ubiquity music has been identified as
important in the construction of autobiographical memories and thus for making judgments about
oneself and others" so you associate different times of your life with different types of music
and I bring this up because everything before this is not defined by any kind of music because
I started listening to music when I was 8 right so before this my memories are all defined by sounds
of nature because before the age of8 since I was not listening to music I'm reminded of
being outside and just listening to the birds and listening to the trees wrestling and just being
more in a space where I'm listening to nothing or I'm listening to just outdoor sounds gave me this
very specific kind of childhood nostalgia and very vivid memories of childhood and I thought
that was interesting and in conjunction with this I also found that childlike traits in me came back
more for example creativity and wonder and it was pretty nice to experience these traits again and
I felt myself appreciate the world a bit more as if I'm seeing it for the first time kind of thing
2.2 heighten sense of presence so being without music I really was able to focus on details way
more and be content with just the simplest things in life for example I really liked listening to
people talking to each other and not in a creepy way but I'll just be walking to class right and
then these people walk by me and they're like that exam was so hard yeah I think I failed blah
blah blah and then it was just catching those simple glimpses into others people's lives that
made me really happy I just felt so much closer to humanity and felt more close to the world around
me and I'm so integrated with what's going on in my environment instead of just focusing on like my
little world with my music so that was really nice simple activities became fun because I got to the
point where I would be content with just noticing the little details that happened but anyways 2.3
is emotional clarity this is in response to the problem I listed before about emotional confusion
so being without music I think definitely helped me get a more accurate sense of my emotions
because I didn't have music to cloud my judgment about how I feel about things and it made me way
more self-aware so let me tell a story there was one day at work I had that was in the middle of
this experiment and I was kind of disturbed and a little bit upset because of something
that happened at work and so on the drive back I could have easily just played a sad song and then
completely identified with that song and then exaggerated my emotions to this extent as you
can see in this picture however because I wasn't allowed to listen to music I had to actually think
for myself and think about how I actually felt and I was able to reflect on why exactly I got upset
by this thing that happened and not having music contributed to me being self-aware of this trigger
that I have and we all have our triggers we all have things that make us upset and I think it's
really important to understand ourselves better by evaluating how we react in certain situations
and how we behave because of maybe some things that happened in the past so that's 3 having a
more accurate knowledge of my emotions chapter 4 what is my advice for you okay and let me
start off by saying I'm not anti-music music is so important to our Humanity in fact newborn
infants detect the beat in music in this paper by Winkler et al., 2008 says quote the capability of
detecting beat in rhythmic sound sequences is already functional at birth and further "music
is the universal language of mankind" as said by Henry Wadsworth and this is because music
is observed in every single culture in the world and every single culture that ever existed every
civilization that we've ever studied has had a form of music and also music has health benefits
as well this paper by Finn & Fancourt, 2018 says "there is support for the application of listening
to music especially within clinical settings for stress reduction" so I am not against music I love
music however I think there is a problem with over listening to music because it's the first
time we have unlimited access to music where we can just play it endlessly and whatever time we
want and I think that's a problem because there is absolutely no room for silence so what's my point
with this I'm saying that if if you are a person who consumes music intentionally and healthily
you have no reason to do anything because you already leave space for silence however if you
relate to me where you do have some kind of music addiction then here is what I would recommend
for you so this is a graph titled relationship between happiness and time spent on music detox
so on the x-axis we have time not drawn to scale and on the y-axis we have happiness I don't know
what units but let me take you through this 3 month journey so the first week was really bad
because this thing that I relied on so heavily was taken from me so it was really uncomfortable
however I had to overcome this this little dip and then the first month I really saw a lot
of these these benefits that I mentioned these and the second month was was the same I really enjoyed
the benefits that I listed and it was really nice to just be with music for the second month as well
however I would not recommend doing this detox for over 2 months because the third month I started
observing some negative side effects and these include constant mumbling to myself as a person
who already talks to myself a lot it was way more than usual I really felt like Rapunzel you
know how Rapunzel's mom was like "stop with the mumbling you know how I feel about the mumbling"
and then Rapunzel was like "I am the lost princess aren't I mother or should I even call you that"
I felt like Rapunzel because of how much I was mumbling and I think I did this because there was
so much silence that my brain was trying to think of ways to fill in the silence just by talking and
this second one bird noises kind of goes along with this I just like learned how to make bird
noises I think that's also me trying to fill in the intense amount of silence I had so what's
my advice then I would say just to try out not listening to music for a bit and if you
feel like you are overly dependent on music just for one day try to not listen to music
or if there is a task that you always do with music playing then try to do it without music
for once and then observe how you feel about it cause even for 2 months that's kind of intense
so just for one day 1 hour you know just try it out and then see how you feel about it then
chapter 5 is how I personally want to listen to music in the future number one is to have
set tasks to designate music listening to and these tasks are tasks that are so boring and
repetitive that it's very hard to be motivated to do them without music though it was a good
challenge that I did these tasks without music for these 3 months I think music playing with these
tasks are a very key motivator for doing them and I kept note of the tasks that I felt very
unmotivated to do without music these include working out, busy work with class assignments,
cleaning, and repetitive tasks such as laundry and making these sketchbook slides etc. and
going back to the first study I mentioned about the participants being deprived of music this
participant really described it well it says "walking to class is tolerable without my iPod
but not having it to study or work out is not" and I really agree age with the sentiment second thing
I want to do is not have spotify premium again but since you're allowed to pick what songs you
want to listen to even if you don't have spotify premium if you're on your laptop I'll listen to
new music when I'm doing my busy work on my computer however when I'm not on my computer
and I need to do tasks such as working out or cleaning um all I'm going to put about 1,000 of
my songs on this iPod that I have and I feel that having this iPod will definitely help me be more
intentional about listening to music because it is a designated device to listen to music on so
I'm really excited to put all my favorite songs on here and then be more appreciative of music
when I am listening to it the third one is to have set tasks where I'm not listening to music
like I'm not allowed to listen to music when I'm doing these tasks and the first one is anytime
I'm in nature because I had such a newfound appreciation for nature and the sounds of nature
in this experiment even though it sounds cheesy but just walking outside was so nice cause it was
so beautiful to listen to the sound of the wind and just the birds and yeah I think there's so
much to appreciate about the sounds of nature and I don't want to lose that again along with that
I'm not going to listen to music when I'm with other people because you know you're like talking
to someone already yeah I also found the joy of just being so immersed in a conversation so it's
like why do you need music when you already have this person to listen to overall being content
with less you know there are some activities where you really don't need music because what
you're doing is enough and I really learned to be content with just doing one task instead of adding
something else like music to it and that brings us to limitations and conclusion first limitation
I'm not a musician and I've never expressed myself creatively through music I mean I have played some
instruments in the past but I never really enjoyed it that much I kind of just played instruments
because it was something that I had to do or that was you know normal to do it was normal to know
how to play an instrument but I can't say that I enjoyed it over other hobbies that I had growing
up so since I don't express myself creatively through music I wonder if the way I view music
is different from a musician who actually does express themselves through music regularly and I'm
curious to hear how you feel about it if you are a person like that 2 is it's very hard to not listen
to music entirely at least where I live because music plays in places like restaurants, the gym,
on my University campus, etc. however I must say that it was very close to being no music at
all because the times I did these things are not nearly enough for it to have a real impact on this
study in my opinion third limitation the sample size is one and the participant of the study
is not a very reliable source so feel free to replicate the study if you have a music addiction
not if you're consuming music healthily already so conclusion just try out not listening to music for
one task or one day and see how you feel because there's so much to be learned from the silence so
my second point embrace the richness of silence even though it is silence it is something that
you can really appreciate and I've learned how to be very content with the silence and just being
with my own thoughts and don't be afraid of it but yeah third thing is if you're subscribed to this
channel make sure to check the bottom of this video description but yeah that's it bye guys
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