Comment on People who don't wear earphones outside - why, and what do you do instead?

• Lazylazycat@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  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.

  source

  • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    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.

    source

    • lovely_reader@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      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.

      source

      • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Why do you assume I haven’t? Of course I have. I enjoy listening to the sounds of an environment, once, twice, thrice, just not 500 times over and over and over.

        I don’t need to connect to the real world, I’m more connected to it than I’d like. I prefer the entertainment industry because it stimulates intelligent thought, and judging by the level of intelligence ITT, y’all need it more than I do.

        source
    • Lazylazycat@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      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?

      source

      • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        The stoics are morons mostly. Yes I have ADHD, and I’m fully medicated for it, thanks.

        source
• Aeao@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  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.

  source

  • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    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.

    source

    • Aeao@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      It’s not drooling off no more than you’re spacing out in music. It’s just life.

      source

      • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Life is active thought. I don’t space out to music at all, I don’t “space out” period, I stay engaged actively with the world.

        source

        • -> View More Comments
• Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  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.

  source

  • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I agree with basically everything you said, but let’s be real - I’m not the one doing the tearing down ITT.

    source