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This is a great point! I think a lot of people, myself included, do the same thing with YouTube videos or even long Netflix shows; it's playing, I'm half-listening to it, but I'm also accomplishing some annoying or semi-mechanical task. If you asked how much video content I consume, you might be shocked at the answer, but I wonder if we should count that as "wasting time".

During my childhood, my mother would do that with The Weather Channel. It was, at least at the time, devoid of anything political, and no sex or violence, though the coverage of severe weather could be a bit anxiety inducing. But even running in the background, I'm sure we still absorbed the messaging of commercials to some extent. It's not quite the same thing as actively watching but probably still imparts some degree of impact.

That's a good point, I also do this as it brings some amount of comfort vs being alone with complete silence.