Podcasts are one of my favorite forms of both entertainment and staying informed. Yet, as with anything, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Here’s why I felt compelled to dial it back.
1 I Listened to Podcasts First Thing in the Morning
You know the routine. Wake up, roll out of bed, make something hot to drink, and reach for an earbud. I perk up to a news podcast summing up the previous day’s headlines. I really enjoy getting news through podcasts, so I pivot to another, followed by something more lighthearted to tone down the anxiety I’ve just injected into my ears.
This isn’t an inherently new way to start the day. My parents had the TV on by the time I was getting ready to leave for school as a kid. Older generations had the radio. Each was limited by what was on at the time. If you woke up at 4AM, there was nothing on. With podcasts, I can always listen as soon as I wake up.
2 Podcasts Are Too Easy to Binge
After going through my morning routine, I’ve already logged an hour or two of listening. Once I get really into an episode, I naturally want to proceed to the next one or the previous one, depending on which type of podcast it is. Unless I’m fully caught up, I feel compelled to keep going. I’m a bit of a podcast completionist, and I don’t listen to podcasts at 2x speed to get through them in less time.
Finishing a podcast doesn’t end the desire to binge. If I finish all the episodes of Serial, countless other podcasts strike a similar tone. If there isn’t a current Snap Judgment episode that catches my eye, I can try This American Life instead.
3 Podcasts Pair Well With Almost Any Activity
Why I start listening to podcasts in the first place largely has to do with how well podcasts pair with doing just about anything else. Listening to podcasts while I pack my kids’ school lunches creates something to look forward to when I force myself out of bed. I can listen to an episode or two while I cut the grass.
The challenge is that relatively few activities don’t pair well with podcasts. I can listen while cleaning the house, working in the garden, and driving. If I’m not actively writing, I can listen while I work. I can even listen while playing a game with my kids.
4 I Fell Asleep to Podcasts
I fell asleep to a TV growing up. This was a habit I picked up from my mother and one I broke when I went off to college. For a while, I listened to instrumental music instead. Eventually, I learned how to sleep in silence. When I discovered podcasts, that became my new preferred way to nod off.
As many of us are, I’m particular about which podcasts I fall asleep to. This isn’t when I fire up The Vergecast; it’s too engaging. Yet I can’t say I’m looking for something boring, either. The right balance for me has been a news podcast where the anchor has a relatively neutral, calming tone. Maybe I should invest in a pair of sleep earbuds, or I can just let my body re-acclimate to sleeping without the background noise instead.
5 I Realized I Was Listening Almost 24/7
If I’m listening to podcasts as soon as I wake up, I tend to binge shows once I start, I pair podcasts with most of my activities throughout the day, and I fall asleep to podcasts playing throughout the night, then I’m essentially always listening to podcasts. Sure, I’d stop for conversations and the like. I’ve also had a silent meditation practice for years, but the podcasts wanted to occupy much of the remaining time.
What’s the big deal? Podcasts are harmless! Sure, perhaps. Yet logging this amount of time doing anything starts to look less like a healthy pastime and more like an addiction.
6 I’m Tired of Looking for Earbuds
I’m grateful for Bluetooth audio. I no longer have to spend time untangling cables that somehow turned into tumbleweeds in my pocket. The thing is, Bluetooth earbuds are notoriously easy to misplace, especially black ones. It gets old going from the bedroom to the office to the car, trying to find where I left my earbuds before I can begin an activity that has come to feel woefully boring without someone talking in my ear.
I’ve since bought a pair of open-ear headphones, and while they’re a bit easier to keep up with, the core issue still stands. All throughout the day, before I can do a thing, I must first find my headphones. That gets old.
7 Friends and Family Always See Me With Headphones
I’m a dad. I have two young kids, and as with anything (seemingly everything) I do, I have to ask what message I’m sending to my kids. Frankly, it’s not the end of the world if they see me wearing headphones, but it’s not a good look if I’m always wearing them. After all, they’ll be teenagers someday, and I won’t have a leg to stand on if I ask them to take their Bluetooth earbuds out at the table if they’ve spent their entire childhoods watching me eat while wearing mine.
People have taken to wearing AirPods in their ears even when there isn’t any audio playing, just so they can move around other people without talking to anyone. Plugging up our ears is a clear anti-social signal, though that may change now that more earbuds are becoming more like hearing aids. Still, no one who knows me will assume I’m wearing an earbud because I can’t hear well without one. Quite the opposite, actually. If for no other reason, being present for the people around me is reason enough to cut back.
That’s not too say I’ve given up podcasts entirely, but I have reduced my list from dozens of feeds down to just a handful of favorites. I do write about tech, after all, and podcasts are a quick way to keep up-to-date on what’s currently trending. By keeping my list short, I do quickly run out of podcasts to listen to, and I’m making the conscious decision not to subscribe to something else to fill the void immediately.
