Ask HN: Is Music Bad For Concentration? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is Music Bad For Concentration?

6 pointsshawndumas9 comments

As a homeschooling dad I am trying to weigh the pros and cons for allowing the kids to listen to music while working. Any thoughts?

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I was homeschooled. I listened to tons of music. I have found it probably decreased my ability to concentrate. However, I have a friend (also homeschooled) who swore by the "Batman Begins" soundtrack to accomplish his math studies. So I think it depends purely on the person.

And, on another note, music is the least of your worries as far as distractions go.

(And on a purely suggestive note, let your kids explore anything and everything. That is how I am what I am today. I took way too many breaks in English to go learn about this, that and the other [especially programming and computers]. I still turned out okay—A's on all my college english papers so far.)

According to several studies in cognitive psychology, introverts and heavy multitaskers perform less well in the presence of music (especially ‘pop music’) than extraverts. Music seems to be especially distracting for introverts involved in reading comprehension activities. Coding tasks are slightly less affected.

I'm an introvert, and you stated my experience exactly. If I need something to drown out external noise like a TV in the next room, I find that Gregorian Chant is less distracting because it is not rhythmic, and I can't understand most of the Latin words.

Depends what I'm doing.

When I'm feeling a bit too tired, I generally like listening to music to wake me up and get me through what I'm trying to do, usually lets me focus a little harder.

When I'm energetic and at full focus, I will sing along to the music I'm listening to, obliterating all my productivity.

Either way, also depends on the person. Have plenty of friends who can't deal with any audible distractions, and have plenty who can't work without it.

I think it really depends on both the music and the person. For me personally, I can only really concentrate with music on, preferably on headphones. This way I can really close down from stuff happening around me. On the other hand, if the music is very lyrics-based, I'll usually start focussing on that instead.

So for me, the amount of lyrics in the music I listen at a given moment is inversely proportional to the level of concentration I need ;)

For me personally, I couldn't work without music. It blocks out environment noise. In a silent area it's like every small sound is amplified tenfold. It could be I'm different, but I had very productive weeks, while on the other monitor Farscape was playing for the nth time.

So I would say, let them choose for themselves what works best. Loosing concentration once in a while because of the music might be a natural stopping point, and listening to music for a short time gets the brain rested enough for a next period of concentration.

For me, music that I’m listening to for the first time is very distracting because I want to consciously analyze what I’m listening to—what genre is this, who sings this, what rating would I give it in iTunes, etc.

Songs I’ve listened to for months or years have the opposite effect and if I’m working in a noisy environment find it hard to get into flow unless I have something to drown out the noise, and music I’m used to already fits the bill without being distracting.

I can only speak personally of course, but...

Is music bad for concentration? Yes. But is music bad for WORKING? God no.

It really depends on what I'm doing. Playing music makes work (and made school work) far more pleasant (and thus easier) to do. But there are time when I need to concentrate, and for that I turned down the music. So, the answer? "It depends."

Music with lyrics is distracting; classical instrumental music is usually ok, and techno (at low volume) actually helps me work.

Also important: music that you change often (e.g. youtube videos) is more distracting than music you turn on and leave alone (e.g. radio).

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