Does Music Distract People from Studying?
The long term debate among music enthusiasts
We all know music is great. Dull workouts that were just lifting lifeless weights can be switched to an extremely cheerful session just with some pop music. Rainy and gloomy days that just seemed impossible to get better can magically become better with music. It is clearly seen that music is a stress reliever for anyone doing anything. Yet, there is one area where the effectiveness of music is debatable: studying.
Studying is one of the modern representative of a highly stressful activity. Not everyone studies and not everyone stresses from it, but according to The Princeton Review, the rate of stress that students from middle school to college in the US was over 50%. About a quarter of the students even specified that homework and tests were the biggest sources of their stress.
This is when music kicks in. Well, allegedly. Most students enjoy listening to music and believe that music can help them have more joy. For instance, below is a graph that shows the level of anger that people had before and after they listened to various types of music:
The graph shows that even though some music genres only implemented minuscule changes to the state of anger, it is manifest that the level of anger still went down with every genre.
Yet, being content and being effective are two separate topics. While music is known to soothe people and help them with their mental health, it might not be the best for learning itself. Take a look at the graph below:
The pie chart shows that only 12% of students strongly believed that music was not a negative factor for their studies. Although this set of data is originated from a fairly small number of people, it is scientifically shown that this would most certainly be true. According to the WRTC Project, because the brain is like a computer that tries to process all stimuli coming at them, it is possible that focusing on the studies would be harder when music comes in through the auditory senses. Therefore, for the brain, it would be like trying to store the information coming from the song while trying to pick up information from the studies which would slow down the speed and efficiency of learning.
THE UNSOLVED View
At The Unsolved, the signature key point is that a perspective that is relatable and rather informal is provided as well. So, think about this matter like you would with your friends: does it help to listen to music while studying? In the editor’s opinion, this is most likely false. As mentioned before, this is a completely opinionated view which is why some people can argue differently, but the editor believes that listening to music will most likely disturb studying. Put a hand on your heart and ask yourself — were there any times when you decided to listen to your favorite pop music but got into the mood of the song too much that you eventually veered away from studying? It is natural to vibe with the songs you like and relax; this is why music will lower people’s stress levels and anger levels down. Studying, however, is not about relaxation or lowering the stress level. It is about focusing on the materials and learning about new information. If music tries to kick in during this process, doesn’t it seem logical that the studying procedure would definitely get affected?
The different genres could have different effects, though. Sedate songs will cause less of a distraction than loud songs. Songs with lyrics will provide more information to the brain which means that studying can be more hampered. Does this mean that quiet classical music will do the job and satisfy everything from the students to the work getting done efficiently? Not really. The Sphinx Organization states that classical music will certainly make students feel better, but will not benefit their studying and can still hinder them because they have a melody as well. The editor agrees because imagine listening to a beautiful piece. Wouldn’t you want to know the name of the piece? The name of the composer? When it was composed? Live performances? Covers? All of these additional factors that come along will most likely drive students away from studying properly.
Verdict
What is this all about then? We know that music is generally beneficial for our mental health and mental health is not something that can be disregarded. Yet, the main thing that students do is studying. Music is likely to disturb them from studying. Which do you choose: mental health or efficiency in studies? The verdict is to aim for both. The way that this can be done is fairly simple. Focus on doing the studies or homework without the music first. Then, if desired, listen to the music that you love to completely relax and recover from stressful academic work. This way, the brain does not have to multi-task and give bad attempts at neither fully relaxing with music or fully focused on studying.
