Society uses music to distract itself and ignore the world around it. Students tend to plug in their headphones during class to cancel out the noise made by their classmates and/or teacher, allowing them to focus solely on the task at hand, homework. Not only is it helpful in canceling out the noise from our surroundings, but music also helps in canceling out the noise coming from our minds. People who work in construction, art, education, and sometimes even in the federal sector like the post office, use music to distract themselves from their surroundings and make time pass more quickly by avoiding any sense of reality. In “Blasting Music To Drown Out Reality” by Sydney J. Harris, music expresses itself as a mask for society. He expresses his own theory about people and their ignorance when it comes to music, believing that they listen to music for entertainment, through an informal perspective. A man who hates modern music and believes that people listen to music just to ignore everything and stop them from thinking about reality instead of listening to music to enjoy it. Harris uses metaphor and simile to express the importance of having a sense of reality. People listen to music for entertainment and desire the art it creates, but they use it to drown out everything around them. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Society's use of music has definitely changed over the years for the worse. People have lost the love of music because of its art and only seek to cancel out our environment. Sydney J. Harris not only explains this throughout the text, but also uses metaphor to get his point across. His argument that people in society no longer listen to music for the art but "to drown out reality" is underlined by the metaphor: "It is not to hear the music, but so that the "empty in sound minds can be soothed by sound, so that silence does not force them to think about themselves or experience the real world of perception and sensation." The use of "emptiness in their minds" represents the emptiness or nothingness in the minds of today's society and reinforces the idea that music has become an addiction to avoid reality. The tone of the text, condescending towards people who only listen to music for entertainment, is disappointing and absurd. Referring to "silence" as the void that people fill with music links back to the statement "empty" to reinforce the metaphor used in the sentence. The generation that people live in today is portrayed throughout this text in a negative manner, expressing that society has lost the importance of appreciating things for what they are and has become a means of avoiding problems and reality. Along with metaphor, Harris uses simile to underpin his arguments. are understood by the reader. The comparison throughout the text highlights the difference and similarities between people's purpose for music and other addictions and/or distractions from reality. Music has become a popular distraction among this generation and Harris compares it to other substances, hobbies and objects. To reinforce the argument he is trying to make, Harris explains: “This urge, almost a compulsion, to keep reality at bay is almost a pandemic in our society. This explains not only the incessant and frenetic music, but also the drugs, the alcohol, the sports madness, the addiction to television, the intense preoccupation.