4 Ways Smartphones Harm Musicians

Smartphones are killing classical music. OK, these little deices can't do anything on their own, but the way we use them poses serious dangers to the future of classical music. This list will not include the well-known phenomenon of phones ringing in concerts. I am concentrating on how people, musicians in specific, are changing because of these devices.

I don't like the patterns of behavior these devices promote, and hopefully reading this article will help you combat them. I am not asking you to just get rid of your phone, but a few changes in how we musicians interact with electronics can help us improve our practice and performance.

1. They shorten our attention spans

This is the scariest one of them all. It affects musicians. It affects audiences. A piece of classical music requires attention from performers and audience members alike. We all need to stay with it to get it. The piece can take a whole hour or more, so it takes commitment. Smart devices take us away from those long blocks of undivided attention. Without attention, classical music means nothing.

The Internet is designed to bombard us with many little individual baits vying for our attention. Have you ever been watching a YouTube video you thought was the greatest, then a suggestion comes up, and you just have to click on it? You mean you couldn't devote five minutes of attention to the video you were watching? How would you ever listen to a Mahler Symphony, let alone play one?

These devices even get into our practice time. It is always so tempting to check something on your device when you have a lull in your practicing action, but minutes can pass very quickly like this, and suddenly you've wasted a lot of time. With your device around, it's probably beckoning and distracting you whether or not it's in your hand.

How do we help this situation? Set aside practice time where your phone and other devices are nowhere near. Tell yourself it can wait a couple of hours until you get back. Nothing will blow up. If you have a Galaxy Note 7, your phone might just blow up, but that's beside the point. Structuring your time is also essential to maintaining attention through a practicing session. The other thing we need to do is practice giving longer blocks of undivided attention. Reading a book, going to a concert, and practicing your instrument can all be good exercises for this.

2. They are addictive and burn out our brains' reward systems

Every time you get an email from a friend, a notification you might have been waiting for, or even when you pick up your device, you get a hit of pleasure hormones like serotonin and dopamine. These are the same chemicals released when drug addicts get a fix of their preferred drugs. Saying technology is a drug is not far from the truth.

Even WebMD has a page on smartphone addiction. Given the high percentages of people who pick up their phones not even knowing why they are picking up their phone, we are going to see problems in the future. There is even a name for feelings of anxiety associated with not having your phone: Nomophobia. I see people freak out when they don't have their phone, and I really wonder if it is full blown withdrawal.

Addictions tend to push out everything else out. If we're all addicted to our phones, where does music go?

Addictions start with the brain receiving pleasurable sensations, like alcohol, nicotine, other drugs, and checking a phone. When you do any of these things once, you get some of the pleasurable feeling, and it feels good, but the next time, that pleasure isn't enough. Your tolerance to the sensations builds up, and eventually no amount of pleasure will satisfy you. Your brain will compensate by cutting the number of dopamine receptors in the brain. That means more dopamine is needed to produce the same high. This not only makes you want to be with your phone more and more, but it also takes away from other good things in life.

There are many things in life that rightfully make us happy, and trigger the reward systems in our brains. Figuring out a solution to a tough problem, spending time with friends, eating good food, doing good work, going out and enjoying nature, and good practice sessions all bring joy and dignity to our lives, as well as some dopamine to our brains. With any addiction, your reward pathways need more and more stimulation to create good feelings--stronger drugs, more alcohol, more phone checking. These artificial things light up our reward pathways to the max and then some, making the truly good things in life suddenly seem just blah.

This one may be hard to get out of. The road out may not be pleasant, but it can be traveled. If you are tempted to pick up your phone, just for once, don't pick it up, then observe how nothing bad happened. You can also go for a set time without your phone. Put it in another room for an hour, and do something healthy like practicing your instrument or reading a book. Keep increasing the time you can go without your phone. You can force your brain to adjust to its new normal.

3. They make us accessible all the time

Being accessible all the time is a good thing, right? Not really. Sometimes we need to get away, even if it is uncomfortable being unreachable. Being connected all the time gives us no time for ourselves and those closest to us. When we are practicing alone, the outside world shouldn't matter, and being alone should be a welcome contrast to the hustle and bustle of life. Getting rid of the phones also enhances music making with others. Imagine a string quartet rehearsal where everyone just plays with their phones. The quartet members are together but lonely. Loneliness is unheard of in a lively quartet rehearsal.

No matter how extroverted you are, you will eventually need some alone time. Before phones, it was hard to reach people and be reached. We were connected to the environment and people right around us, and that is how we are meant to live.

Being connected is not a bad thing, but being connected continuously is. Do I want to be accessible when I practice my violin, take a walk in the woods, or bike around my neighborhood? Absolutely not. I want to be present in the moment and in what I'm doing. All the problems I have to deal with will be right there when I get back to civilization. At home, it is important to peel yourself away from the outside so you can spend a healthy balance of time with family, friends, and your instrument. Getting away from the electronics regularly is also a good way to stave off their addictive effects.

4. They keep us up at night

Just one more video. Just one more level of this stupid game. Just one more check of Facebook. After a few of these, it's five hours before you have to wake up to get to work. Sometimes, you might have a good reason that you need to be up taking care of something, but chances are you can put down your phone at a set time each night, and nothing bad will happen.

In addition to the time you spend on your phone not sleeping, you are bombarding your eyes with the bluish light from the screen. Blue light triggers the awakening part of our brain and keeps us from getting to sleep even when we do pry ourselves away from the phone and go to bed. The blue light also blocks production of the sleep hormone melatonin. The effect can be compared to caffeine.

Lack of sleep has been linked to weight gain, depression, and a whole lot of other things that are best avoided. These things will mess up your ability to make music and interact with others. Depression causes loss of interest in things that you liked before, and making music is not immune. It doesn't take a doctor to tell you that not sleeping = feeling bad = poor productivity.


This article isn't intended to scare you or make you get rid of your phone. My hope is that you will examine how you interact with electronics, and weigh their pros and cons in your life.