Is Music a bad addiction?

[Cody_Atzori]

I just watched Leo's old video about addictions and subtle addictions and it got me to wonder. Although he didn't say music was an addiction I can assume it can be as it's just a form of distraction. Just for context, I enjoy meditating, contemplating and self-actualizing, etc. However,  I constantly listen to music. I'm like baby driver lol. I only listen to music by myself, but It's one of my main sources of happiness, especially if it's a pogo song, and I'm walking outside by myself. I feel like the more I meditate the more I enjoy the music I listen to. Am I developing an addiction?  The thing is I don't think music is a bad thing. If I feel bad, instead of turning to drugs or food, I turn to music, and If feel amazing then I use music to amplify it. The only time I don't listen to music is when I meditate, properly contemplate, talk to friends & family (most of the time), sleep, or watch youtube. In addition to this I play piano, guitar & sing. I'm not too concerned with it I just wanna see what other people think. Is music a pernicious threat to the psyche, or is it another beautiful part of life?

 

btw I'm listening to music while typing this

 

Edited May 28, 2019 by Cody_Atzori

[Zigzag Idiot]

9 minutes ago, Cody_Atzori said:

Is music a pernicious threat to the psyche, or is it another beautiful part of life?

I think both. On a relative scale, it's less harmful than an alcohol or heroin addiction. It's been an issue with me before at a time when I was uncomfortable with silence. It was something I relied on to dissociate in a subtle way from the present moment. As the saying goes, "awareness is curative". Observing how I was using music to dissociate was eventually enough to resolve it in a round about way.

[Truth Addict]

@Cody_Atzori

It's fine unless you're multi-tasking it with something else (like you did as in writing this post).

It's fine unless you want to quit it and enjoy being without flavours, control, or manipulation.

It's fine unless it's distracting you from doing the things you want/need to be doing.

-My rules-

[Bill W]

2 hours ago, Truth Addict said:

@Cody_Atzori

It's fine unless you're multi-tasking it with something else (like you did as in writing this post).

It's fine unless you want to quit it and enjoy being without flavours, control, or manipulation.

It's fine unless it's distracting you from doing the things you want/need to be doing.

-My rules-

I like that. Good rules. 

[hariseldon74]

I love music and listening to music especially if the lyrics are well written

[studentofthegame]

when I'm stressed I tend to listen to one or two albums on loop. it's been all opeth and tool for about a month straight.

I recognised it as a crutch, but then I saw tim ferriss talking about how he uses one song on loop sometimes as a meditative device. so maybe there's a bit of that going on too.