Podcasts

I am trying to get into the habit of listening more to podcasts, especially in the evenings. The primary reason is to reduce my screen time. If everyone has one body part or faculty that they know will trouble them in old age, mine is my eyes. I haven't been genetically blessed in that area, and laser surgery wasn't the elixir I thought it would be. Which is why I have decided to reduce the time I spend before electronic screens, by cutting the time I spend surfing the web. 

The other reason is spending  a lot of time on Twitter and Facebook is not great for one's mental health. One is usually outraged and sometimes thrilled by what one reads, and spending so much time in an armchair rage is not conducive to peace of the mind. I am a news buff who doesn't have many hobbies, so its the most natural thing in the world for me to go on Twitter or news websites when I have downtime. I have set an one hour limit for Twitter and I am happy to report that I have never bent the rules, except on one occasion when India and Pakistan were on the brink of war. 

A third reason is that the medium is not neutral. Reading someone and listening to them speak are not interchangeable experiences. My first thought was an annoying voice could be more of an (unjustified) put-off than an annoying writing style, but on the other hand, some people express themselves better through speech than writing. I want to explore this sensory experience.