The Positive Effects of Listening to Music While Studying
By: Kamea Primacio
Staff Writer
Listening to music while doing schoolwork had created troubling opinions for many researchers as well as students.
From the researcher’s point of view, some believe there are benefits of listening to music when doing schoolwork, while other researchers believe that there are negative effects.
For example, in the article “Can Music Help You Study and Focus?” written by Dr. Masha Godkind at Northcentral University, it states that classical music is helpful when studying because there are not any lyrics to be distracting to students. In addition, it states that music affects our mood, blood pressure, and heart rate.
Different types of music affect our ability to focus and how well we perform while working. This article shows only some of the benefits of listening to music while doing schoolwork or homework.
However, in the article “The Effects of Music on a Student’s Schoolwork,” it states that doing multiple tasks at a time is distracting and can cause someone to not be completely focused.
A different study had also shown that listening to loud music distracts from reading as music tends to agitate rather than help a person focus on their main goal, which is not good for a studying student.
However, asking around the Green River campus had some students saying the opposite.
Jose Ramos who is lives in Covington, says that being a student who has ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) his original coping system was playing soccer. He had used this throughout his whole life, unfortunately, he hadn’t been playing soccer recently and says he had been feeling the effects of his ADHD.
Ramos said that recently he had been playing instrumental music to stay focused on doing his schoolwork, saying it keeps some sort of background noise to keep his brain focused on his work and keeps from distracting onto other things.
Ramos also says that in this aspect it is a positive but, he comes to say that he had seen it become a negative thing for him in the past because the instrumentals can become “ boring “ and leads to him wanting to listen to his own music preference of 90s rap, modern-day rap, and hip hop. This is when it can be a distraction as the focus becomes more on the music and less of the classwork.
Ramos’ opinion on the scientific study which states that music is a distraction is that he can listen to hip hop and still be focused however he catches himself becoming more off guard. He also says that to a certain extent he can agree with the studies but our brain and how we work is different for everyone,
“I know my brain won’t work the same as yours or the person to the left of me.” He then goes on to say it is a person’s responsibility to understand and make a decision whether or not music is beneficial.
Another student at Green River College, Morgan Stahl who also lives in Covington, said the way music helps her school productivity was by helping her to focus and get things done in a timely manner.
Stahl’s opinion on the scientific perspective was similar to Ramos, “it depends on the person and especially the type of music you listen to.” She had read about articles that said classical music can help people be more focused with their work and study for their classes.
The controversy about music being a good or bad habit while doing school work seems to be mixed. It has scientific studies for both sides of the argument and it seems to be based more on a person’s personal usage of music.
Music can be a helpful studying tool for those who might need it. In the end it is up to the individual to decide whether listening to the right kind of music while doing their schoolwork really is a beneficial tool for themselves or if it is just another distraction.
