Why Most Musicians Can’t Stop Scrolling — And What That Says About You 📱

True story:

I set a screen time limit on my social media the other day.

Not because I’m particularly virtuous — just tired of the constant noise.

By the end of the work day, I found myself feeling something I hadn’t in a long time:

Bored.

Like… actually bored.

It was almost physically uncomfortable.

I caught myself reaching for my phone out of habit…

Only to be met with a cold, grey "time limit reached" message.

No dopamine hit. No scrolling. No clever distractions.

Just… me.

And it reminded me of a study I once read:

The Electric Shock Study (University of Virginia, 2014).

Participants were asked to sit alone with their thoughts for just 15 minutes.

That’s it.

No phone. No book. No music. No distractions…

Just silence.

More than 50% of the participants chose to give themselves an electric shock rather than sit in that stillness.

Let that sink in.

They literally shocked themselves to escape their own minds.

Here’s why I bring this up …

We’re not wired for stillness anymore.

Discomfort — anxiety, stress, busy-ness — feels safer than silence.

I see this in every single one of my clients.

Talented musicians who would rather rehearse until midnight,

scroll endlessly,

over-practice,

overthink,

over-function…

Than just sit and be still.

Because that stillness feels like failure.

Or worse — like a threat.

Rest doesn’t come naturally to them.

And here’s the thing:

Rest isn’t always restorative when you haven’t trained for it.

Relaxing is a skill too.

One we’re not taught in school, or conservatoire… or anywhere, really.

We’re taught how to play...

How to grind...

How to perform.

But no one teaches us how to recover.

How to sit with ourselves in the pause.

So if that’s you — if you secretly hate stillness and need the noise to feel normal…

You might want to keep your eyes peeled.

I’ve got something coming soon that might just help ease that overthinking mind…

So you can start building the kind of mental strength, self-trust, and clarity they never taught you in music school.

The kind that shapes your career just as much as your technique ever did.

More on that in the next few weeks.

With warmth and music,

Gökçe 💙