3.2 iPods bad for emotional health?

Does listening to a lot of music dull our capacity to respond emotionally to the world without the presence of music? Can music become an emotional crutch? Or does it instead train our psyches to respond emotionally and this improve our emotional sensitivity to the world? Or does it have no effect at all in this regard? Perhaps it’s really an empiric question. I’m simply paranoid that all the music I’m listening to for hours a day on my iPod is ruining my ability to emote without music.

Musicians, who are exposed to music constantly don’t seem to have any problems with emoting in general. In fact, they are, as a group, rather famous for the opposite. So I conclude with this rock-solid bit of evidence that music teaches you to feel more deeply.

Based on an email to Steve Clarian 2005.10