I love music. Famously addicted to shoegazing and dreampop. Then—I stopped. Here’s why I’m bringing it back.
I used to be a music hound. It was obsession and it was identity.
Smartphones changed that for me.
I would have thought that having a computer in my pocket would make it easier to bring music with me. But ripping CDs into iTunes just didn’t work.
Then I got into podcasts.
Which were a breath of fresh air ten years ago. It was like listening to NPR, but only the best parts that I liked.
But now, a decade later, my brain is overloaded, I’m walking around in a perpetual state of overwhelm, and I can’t take in the steady stream of data without defragging my mental hard drive.
Just taking a look at my podcast player (I use Overcast), you could see how it represents the problem. I am subscribed to more than seventy-five active podcasts. I just counted.
And during Holy Week, my brain just broke. Spinning wheel of death telling me I’d used up all my active memory.
It started on my way to the Maundy Thursday service. I went to play a show, realized I had retained nothing I was hearing. So I turned on some music.
Good Friday is for music.
I spent most of the weekend listening to music. Going back to stuff I love and have to sing along to on Friday and Saturday. Then on Sunday, I started listening to new things. Searching for albums I’ve always wanted to listen to.
After about ten days without listening to podcasts, I opened my player this morning and listened to an episode of Know Your Enemy. It felt good.
The problem isn’t podcasts. Or music. But how we’re using our brains.
Here’s a few things I’ll do this week for the sake of healing a broken brain:
Reduce Stress / Increase Play
- Unsubscribing from a ton of podcasts.
- Listen to a new album I’ve never heard before.
- Take breaks from intensity.
- Reward accomplishments.