The title
of the story is “How Headphones Changed the World”, it was published on the
online version of “the Atlantic ” by Derek
Thompson.
This
article is devoted to the use of headphones and the role of music, its
influence on people’s mood and even life.
To visit a modern office place is to walk into a room with a
dozen songs playing simultaneously but to hear none of them. Up to half of younger workers listen
to music on their headphones, and the vast majority thinks it makes us better
at our jobs. In survey after survey, we report with confidence
that music makes us happier, better at concentrating, and more productive.
Science says we're full of it. Listening to music hurts our
ability to recall other stimuli, and any pop song -- loud or soft -- reduces
overall performance for both extraverts and introverts. A Taiwanese studylinked music with lyrics
to lower scores on concentration tests for college students, and other research
have shown music with words scrambles our brains' verbal-processing skills. "As
silence had the best overall performance it would still be advisable that
people work in silence," one report dryly concluded.
If headphones are so bad for productivity, why do so many
people at work have headphones?
There is an
economic answer: The United States has moved from a farming/manufacturing
economy to a service economy, and more jobs "demand higher levels of
concentration, reflection and creativity."This leads to a logistical
answer: With 70 percent of office workers in cubicles or open work spaces, it's
more important to create one's own cocoon of sound. That brings us to a
psychological answer: There is evidence that music relaxes our muscles,
improves our mood, and can even moderately reduce blood pressure, heart
rate, and anxiety. What music steals in acute concentration, it returns
to us in the form of good vibes.
What
conclusions we can makefrom the article? That brings us finally to our final
cultural answer: Headphones give us absolute control over our
audio-environment, allowing us to privatize our public spaces. This is
an important development for dense office environments in a service economy. But
it also represents nothing less than a fundamental shift in humans' basic
relationship to music.
The article
is entertaining and it made me think about the great role of sounds and music. Personally
I cannot imagine my life without it!
Reposting!
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