Young Australian Skeptics

I just bought some amazing Sennheiser headphones a few weeks back and have marvelled at the difference between these and the standard iPod supplied ones. We are talking chalk and cheese here. I was frankly gobsmacked. I think I might be in love.

Unfortunately as I was pulling the right bud out of my ear a few days back the wire detached itself from the speaker end. I was devastated and promptly took them to JB Hifi to get a replacement. To my disgust they refused to do so and have sent them to the manufacturer to ‘assess’ them. How ridiculous. What is there to assess? As far as I’m concerned when you pull a speaker bud out of your ear the wiring should be strong enough to deal with it. At a cost of $80 you expect a certain level of hardiness and quality right? Don’t answer that.

So while I wait the 4 to 6 weeks I am back to my old pair (grrr). The problem being that they were at work, so for the first time since I bought the iPod I was without sounds for my 35 minute walk to the station.

Without the sweet company of Nick Drake or the latest You Look Nice Today podcast I was unfortunately left alone with my own mind. It was an uncomfortable experience and we were both very nervous, like two acquaintances left in a room together with nothing to say to each other.

Given I was such poor company, my mind began to wander. All manner of subjects of minor interest popped in for a visit then popped out again. After a little while of observing my minds rambling it struck me that it had been some time since we had daydreamed together. It then occurred to me that this would be due to the iPod. I realised that when I am not on-​​task at work, on-​​line on the computer or on-​​the-​​floor with my daughter I am plugged-​​in to my iPod. It pans out that I leave virtually no intervening time to simply let my mind wander.

It made me question what are the benefits and drawbacks to being focused on things all the time. Is there possible damage in not allowing for daydream time?

I googled the question – “What are the benefits of daydreaming?” I clicked on one of the results and came across this article. Essentially it says that daydreaming is really good for you. It aids stress management, motivates you with difficult jobs and improves concentration. I would have thought that listening to great music or thought provoking podcasts (like The Pseudo Scientists of course) would be just as useful in these areas. Music can motivate you and a really interesting Podcast like the ABC’s All In The Mind requires a good deal of concentration to take in all the information.

My other thought was that by denying myself daydream and mind wandering time I could be missing out on some really imaginative ideas. I know as a songwriter that many of my arrangements come from daydreaming; in that I hear the completed piece in my head with all the combined instruments. I also came up with the idea for this post while daydreaming. Whether you find it genuinely interesting is not the point; the fact is I would never have come up with it had I been listening to my iPod.

It makes me think (when i have stopped listening to The Carpenters that is) what studies are being done to determine the psychological impacts of not allowing your mind to wander each day? There is a great new book about the important part imagination plays on child development called The Philosophical Baby coming out soon which may shed some light … I can only hope it comes out in audiobook version.

Tags: attention, daydreaming, imagination, iPod

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Dan Kerr, Humour, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.