I stopped listening to music while working. It wasn’t a conscious decision. It just happened over time. 

And in the past couple years, I also stopped following my favorite genre and many of the artists in it.

If I ever hear that they released new music, sometimes I’ll go listen, but often I lose interest quickly.

As someone who was obsessed with music in his 20s, I was intrigued as to why this was. So I looked it up.

I now can’t find the article, but the premise was that in our teens and 20s, music helps us form and reinforce our identity. We listen to the same music as our friends, online or offline, as a way to feel connected and like we belong.

But as we get older, we have a better sense of who we are, and what we want to do in life. So music is less effective for that.

I certainly feel that way - I’m way more confident in who I am than I was in my 30s. I’ve made a lot of decisions over the past couple of years to stop doing things that were mainly just to fit in. And start doing things that were true to myself.