Some say amid what authorities are calling a national loneliness crisis, podcasts take the place of casual chatter with friends, or at least mimic the feeling.... For others, the distraction is the point. Praise Tolbert, a full-time mom in Florida, uses podcasts to combat intrusive thoughts, a difficult symptom of her bipolar disorder, the 26-year-old said. She leaves one AirPod in her ear all day long.... At night, she plays the podcast out loud on her phone while she sleeps....
Tolbert.... talks openly with her 3-year-old about the ever-present AirPod. “I explain to him like, ‘This is just helpful for me. It’s my podcast,’” she said. “He just accepts it. He’s never questioned it. Sometimes he even listens too.”
The article is almost entirely bereft of anything that I'd consider science. There's this:
It’s nearly impossible to set up a study that shows a causal link between digital media and attention.... So instead, scientists make educated guesses.... What matters is that what you’re doing is helpful to you, experts said....
No science, but there are, nonetheless scientists. They offer guesses. But their main guess is just to tell you to go ahead and make your own guess.
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My high school students have their airpods in and are listening to music every waking moment. Listening to podcasts you might at least learn something.
Who needs human contact? Let the machine fill your life With meaning.
Some podcasts or audiobooks are good background noise that I can ignore. It keeps me from being distracted by all the other noises (and I do find noises distracting). It's great when I can find that perfect combination of a pleasant voice that is comfortable to listen to or ignore with content that is interesting in case I do start listening.
I used to use the TV for this, but there's too much variation in the sound. Podcasts and audiobooks are much better. They're also good to sleep to. I'll wake up if someone opens a door a floor down and on the far side of the house. A podcast keeps me from hearing it. I'll still wake up naturally (or due to cats) for a short while during the night, so I prefer informative podcasts or books that I can listen to until I fall asleep again.
I don't play them round the clock, though. Sometimes I'd rather have a conversation or just hear the birds or whatever else is outside. Cicadas being an exception to that.
"some say" = journalese for "me and my editor agree"
Different people have different motivations, but it doesn’t have to be any big deal. I find it soothing to have football on the TV, even if I’m not really watching. (Sadly, this rarely happens as no one else in my family has any sympathy for sports.) My wife likes to have the radio going all the time. She finds silence depressing. If some people use podcasts as a sort-of white noise machine, I don’t see the harm.
I listen to Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn. They are the best (that I've listened to) in the 'sane liberal' genre.
Well I've got no science to add to the discussion, but around the clock audio would drive me right around the bend. It makes me think that there must be some terrible lack of SOMETHING in the person's head to want this. I can't even stand to have music or talk in my head when I'm out running for over two hours. My brain keeps me plenty entertained without any outside input. That would stop me from thinking properly.
That Mom is going to regret that decision when her kid is a teen. Signed, have one and am so thankful I put down my phone and removed earbuds when parenting the last decade as that's what is normal in my family while interacting.
She will love having her kid never remove headphones when trying to her teen.
Yes I've been using podcasts for company. I miss your podcast, Ann.
Anyway , my husband is old and sick and sleeps a lot. I'm good reading but when I want company I quietly put on the Bluetooth headset..aaaand he wakes up and wants to talk.
Why are they like that.
I listen to audiobooks but only when I am driving.
>Praise Tolbert, a full-time mom in Florida, uses podcasts to combat intrusive thoughts, a difficult symptom of her bipolar disorder<
Interesting concept: combat intrusive thoughts with other intrusive thoughts.
For an information junkie, podcasts can be listened to on walks or while driving, which are not reading times.
When I was a kid in Minneapolis, my mother had the kitchen radio on all day every day. She listened to WCCO, which I believe had about a 70 share at the time. She wasn't actually listening all the time, it was in the background, but if something important came up she knew about it right away. I always thought that everyone lived that way, until I left home for college.
These days I listen to audiobooks, especially when riding my mower or doing outdoor chores. I splurged for the AirPod Max (over the ear headphones) because they have great noise cancelling and are perfectly integrated with my iPhone, pausing the audio to announce callers and asking whether to answer the calls. Feels very 21st century.
These stories about "some people" should be prefaced with a note reminding readers that, in a country of 340 million people, there are 340 thousand people who have physical or mental states that are so rare that they only happen to one person in 1000. Dysfunction, though interesting, is exceptional.[Corrected]
I too listen to audiobooks and podcasts when driving. I’m certainly not suffering a loneliness crisis.
Speaking of loneliness crisis, I heard the late night tv hosts have decided to band together and create their own podcast. If they can sell their stuff outside the union, then why can’t anyone else and why should we care if the strike ever ends? Obviously they were already competing against other podcast content when they were on TV. Now they are joining the same medium, which I don’t expect to work out well for them.
What’s the difference between podcasts and having over the air radio on?
I might listen to Joe Rogan if he has someone intersting on. Same with Jordan Peterson. I much rather engage the world around me.
I listen to religious historian Alec Ryrie's Gresham Lectures. I like his voice, his approach, and, most of all, his skepticism.
I can honestly say I've never listened to a podcast of any kind; or an audiobook, either. I have never, at least in the internet/podcast era, needed something to replace silence, or my own thoughts.
I'm not sure I've ever listened to an actual podcast. Except for a few snippets on teh YouTubes of Rogan.
('YouTubes of Rogan' sounds like something from Lord of the Rings, heh)
Never got into podcasts, but I do enjoy me some old-time radio serials. That led me to BBC Radio productions and other related items. It's much different than an audiobook in that you have a full cast essentially acting out the story rather than someone merely narrating.
At night I use a brown noise app for sleeping (brown noise is at a lower frequency than white) and it puts me right out.
Another favorite: Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
The Rogan Experience is good for 3+ hours listening a day. Not Joe himself, but his guests that he gets to talking. The width of the knowledge that Joe and his guests can go deep into is amazing. And you know that hearing that much good content over Rogan would also require having to listen to a hundreds of hours of kindergarten level ads and blather over a cable TV channel.
Podcasts 24/7? I've yet to listen to one.
I don't see how it's different than running the tv or the radio all the time.
Lots of people can't seem to get through the day without music constantly playing in the background. This is simply the next step.
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