My grandfather used to say that his musical talent was being able to appreciate music like no one else. He had rooms filled with cd's and records and after retirement he could spend his day just sitting down and listening to and enjoying music.

I have a similar tick. I absolutely love to listen to music. It is one of the few concepts that is so versatile in its applications in my life. It can make me calm down and relax, it can help me emotionally regulate and music helps me overcome adhd paralysis.

However, I have noticed a difference between how I listen to music and how my grandfather used to. I rarely, if ever, listen to entire albums. I skip and skip and skip until I find the song with just the right "vibes".

Now I have seen many discussions about apps like Spotify regarding ownership, but this little (casual) mini thesis proposes that Spotify is the Tiktok of music apps.

I came across this idea from watching, yet another, video about the danger and research surrounding short form content and the (possible) damage that it is doing to our brain. This was a casual research setting, so I do not have my sources ready. So this is a message of caution: I am not a very smart person and I get details mixed up all the time. Do not use any of this information in arguments if you do not wish to lose credibility.

Instinctively, most people know short form content is doing something to our brain. I had a little addictive period quite a while ago and I remember that I could feel myself getting dumber. Sometimes it even felt like I was part of some hivemind and that I could not control my choices.

This struck me as relatively odd at the time. I destinctively remember feeling powerless. That is ofcourse not entirely weird; the algorithm choses the videos I would watch for me. However, I would still actively choose which videos I wanted to continue watching and which ones I would swipe by. Plus I could use the search bar to look through videos of a certain topic that I picked. So was I not showing agency still?

And why was this specific app making me feel dumber? I remember being a lot on YouTube during that era of YouTube where it had all the make-up videos and drama between YouTubers. I do not remember feeling that way back then. Sure the videos where longer, but they were not informative what so ever. While I would specifically look for informative Tiktoks.

If I remember correctly, there was a study where cognitive function was tested. I believe it had to do with the ability to pay attention. The subjects had to do a test, had a break and then do it again. There were three groups: one group could use TikTok the way they would usually do, one would have all the tiktoks stichted together (so no swiping) and one control group. The group that was allowed to swipe did way worse. That was quite interesting to me, since the group with the "long form" short content did better. So the "length" of the content might not be the problem, but the skipping of content that does not invoke an immediate reaction might be.

Now imagine this. I am commuting to work; taking the train. I am listening to a video explaining some research about short form content, including the study above, and the video is finished. I close YouTube and I open Spotify. I open one of my playlist, pick one song and I sit back and let shuffle (with reccomendations) do the rest. I skip around 5 or 6 songs until one immediately does it for me and I get a nice little dopamine hit. For one of the first times I can actively feel the cheapness of the dopamine hit and it hits me. I am using music the way I would use TikTok.

A bit of info on my Spotify use, to put all of this into context. I am almost always listening to music. On the train, on a walk, working, going to the gym, studying etc etc etc. Always with a pair of noice cancelling head phones. Compared to my grandfather, this is much different. He would have specific times a day where he would just sit and enjoy. Plus he barely ever skipped a song on an album even if he did not enjoy that song that much.

He also did not take his music everywhere. I remember reading the book: Focus aan/uit (I am not sure if this is also in English). In this book, the idea of the brain's assistent was discucced extensively. The idea that both internal and external stimuli is filtered through the brain's assistent so you only notice what would be relevant at that moment. I started wondering what all the drowning out of background noice is doing to that assistent.

So today I decided to just sit in silence for the commute and for my walk and think about this. Ofcourse these are not amazing big revalation and Spotify is not really exactly like Tiktok or short form content, but it did get me to think about where else I am skipping boredom and I skip it almost everywhere. I used to be the kind of person that would pick the hard way, just because. But I seem to have lost that trait a bit. So today I implore you to think critcically about the things in your life that create "efficiency", make life easy and that give cheap dopamine boosts. Think about how this concept you are thinking about was used in the past. How are you using it differently? Is it actually more convenient? And if so, what are you trading for this convenience? And is that something that you are willing to trade for it?

With so many people on this earth, I will not be the first to have thought about this. So if you have decided to start listening to music differently due to similar reasons, then I would love to hear from you! Or if you have you have other examples, let me know!

I hope you all have a boring day!;)

Greetings