Ditch the Headphones and Pick Up a Book!

Looks like there’s now some scientific proof behind the stereotype of the angsty teen slumped in her bedroom all day listening to emo music. (Or screamo? Or whatever the kids are listening to these days.) A new study has found that teens who listen to music are much more likely to be depressed.

“[T]eens who reported listening to music more often — rather than using other types of media like TV and books — were at higher risk of having major depressive disorder (MDD), compared with teens who listened to music less frequently.”

I can certainly think of a few bands that would bring on depression if I spent hours listening to them, but so far it hasn’t been determind if these teens are listening to music because they’re depressed or whether they’re depressed because of the music they’re listening to. The study did have one ray of sunshine:

“[R]esearchers found that reading books had the opposite association: with each level increase in time spent reading, teens’ risk of depression dropped 50%.”

Yes! Maybe now reading things will catch on again, and those of us who were bookworms (eh-hem!) can speak proudly about the many hours of inside time we logged as adolescents.