Musical Earworm Removal
Do you know what an earworm is? You do, but the phrase may be new to you. An 'earworm' is a song that gets stuck in your head and drives you crazy. As a life long suffered, it was gotten really bad lately. So bad, in fact, that I was able to diagnose and CURE it. I genuinely think I know the reason these songs get stuck in your head to play over and over. The cure? I will reveal that in a moment.
See, I listen to my iPod at work very quietly. As you can imagine, I have to pause it incessantly to help people. I don't mind doing this at all. The music is so low you can't hear it. Anyhow, since I moved to this system, I suffer from ear worms all day long. It is a problem, because I can't concentrate on business. I soon realized what it was. Whenever I didn't finish a song... it stuck. There is only one cure, to listen to the song to completion.
If you are familiar with optical illusions, you know they work because tthe brain wants to complete things. In fact, it has to. This is why movies look like moving pictures to us, when in fact they are just a series of completely still images. The phenomenon is called 'persistance of vision'.
So, I am going to call earworms 'persistance of hearing'. Your brain so desperately needs the resolution of that hook that it will replay it over and over. This, I believe, is why commercials are so pernicious with hooks you can't gvet out of your head. There is no resolution to those 'hooks'. The song on a commercial never comes to a logical close, so your brain get deeply concerned about the fate of those baby back baby back baby back ribs.
I had rid myself of this problem driving, as I listen to NPR talk radio only now. Clear Channel finally got me to drop FM for good. So, on the weekend that doesn't happen to me. At work, though, I was stricken. I found by taking the extra 90 seconds after I left my desk to hear the song to it's end... earworm gone! Try it!
See, I listen to my iPod at work very quietly. As you can imagine, I have to pause it incessantly to help people. I don't mind doing this at all. The music is so low you can't hear it. Anyhow, since I moved to this system, I suffer from ear worms all day long. It is a problem, because I can't concentrate on business. I soon realized what it was. Whenever I didn't finish a song... it stuck. There is only one cure, to listen to the song to completion.
If you are familiar with optical illusions, you know they work because tthe brain wants to complete things. In fact, it has to. This is why movies look like moving pictures to us, when in fact they are just a series of completely still images. The phenomenon is called 'persistance of vision'.
So, I am going to call earworms 'persistance of hearing'. Your brain so desperately needs the resolution of that hook that it will replay it over and over. This, I believe, is why commercials are so pernicious with hooks you can't gvet out of your head. There is no resolution to those 'hooks'. The song on a commercial never comes to a logical close, so your brain get deeply concerned about the fate of those baby back baby back baby back ribs.
I had rid myself of this problem driving, as I listen to NPR talk radio only now. Clear Channel finally got me to drop FM for good. So, on the weekend that doesn't happen to me. At work, though, I was stricken. I found by taking the extra 90 seconds after I left my desk to hear the song to it's end... earworm gone! Try it!
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