# Are headphones extinct, or is it courtesy? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 27, 2014, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734 "2014-11-27T01:43:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/21 "2014-11-29T02:07:41Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > I do wonder what city you live in, **Seanette** , because when I lived in LA I never experienced this and here in Austin I don’t either. I don’t subscribe wholeheartedly to **Shagnasty’s** point of view regarding ghettos but it does seem sort of 1981, or as **Smapti** said, the age of boomboxes. Everyone I see in public or in private is using headphones to listen to their devices, pretty much without exception. Sacramento, CA. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/22 "2014-11-29T02:49:06Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > You do realize the trains and buses are traveling significant distances? They do stuff like go through nice neighborhoods where they pick up people who maybe just don’t want to put up with traffic, \*and \*they go through neighborhoods where some people can’t afford cars. Sorry you’re such a bumpkin you can’t comprehend large transportation systems. I am not a bumpkin despite my best efforts. Be careful who you throw random insults to on this board because you may not have any idea who you are speaking to. The random approach often works but you missed in this case. I understand large transportation systems and large cities just fine. I have lived in two of them (New Orleans and Boston) and visited many more for an extended period of time. I hate urban areas because they don’t fit my personality. A lot of people love them for whatever reason but I respect that because not all people appreciate the same things. You couldn’t give me enough money to live in NYC even if the rent or real estate was free and I got a generous allowance for the stunt but lots of people are willing to pay obscene amounts of money for the ‘urban’ experience. I am not trying to insult you but I run across this problem a lot. Some people just aren’t matched that well to their current environment. The U.S. as a whole is mind blowingly huge with every range of possibilities available. If you don’t like where you are, move. I have done it myself 4 times and two of those times were with $14 to negative dollars and no backup plan. It can be done. The vast majority if the U.S. by land area is very cheap and survivable even with basic jobs. There is a reason that you don’t see people starving in the Midwest or the Deep South. Their house is probably much bigger, nicer and much more luxurious than a rich person on the exclusive parts of either coast. The only thing that pisses me off is that people claim that they CAN’T move to a place better suited to them when you have Mexican illegal immigrants literally walking barefoot across the desert for days just hoping to get a maid job in a zero star no tell-motel for below minimum wage. They have the will to do it. Why are people like you whining so much? ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/23 "2014-11-29T07:23:36Z")
Do my posts really sound whiny to you? If you’re not trying to sling insults, maybe don’t start by suggesting I live in a ghetto? Please excuse the city people while they’re making trite complaints about a trite subject. Sometimes people enjoy commiserating about ultimately inconsequential things we have in common. That’s all that’s happening here. It’s like bump- er, country folk complaining about the mosquitoes. It doesn’t mean we hate where we live. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/24 "2014-11-29T07:30:41Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > Do my posts really sound whiny to you? If you’re not trying to sling insults, maybe don’t start by suggesting I live in a ghetto? Please excuse the city people while they’re making trite complaints about a trite subject. Sometimes people enjoy commiserating about ultimately inconsequential things we have in common. That’s all that’s happening here. It’s like bump- er, country folk complaining about the mosquitoes. It doesn’t mean we hate where we live. That is fine. All I am saying is that I haven’t experienced anything like what you are complaining about in the last 20 years outside of really poor, urban areas and I get around a lot all over the country. I may have been projecting a bit. I can’t put up with that type of thing on a daily basis at all but there is a solution for it because a whole lot of things that people complain about can be instantly fixed by simply picking up your stuff and moving somewhere that is a better fit even though most people are hesitant to do that. If you just want to vent, fire away. This is the place for it. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/25 "2014-11-29T14:39:58Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > You do realize the trains and buses are traveling significant distances? They do stuff like go through nice neighborhoods where they pick up people who maybe just don’t want to put up with traffic, \*and \*they go through neighborhoods where some people can’t afford cars. Sorry you’re such a bumpkin you can’t comprehend large transportation systems. Or they go to places like, you know, the Chicago Loop, where there are jobs, which means it’s crowded, which means that it can cost $20+ a day just to park. In spite of what you may see in the media, I live in Chicago, but I don’t actually have to dodge gunshots on my daily commute. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/26 "2014-11-29T14:49:42Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Or they could just put the device down for 5 minutes and experience real life. Maybe even talk to a _real person!_ Not on the T (Boston public transport), I won’t! ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/27 "2014-11-29T14:52:25Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > I spend every airport layover with earbuds jammed into my ears to drown out the 1984-style telescreens blasting in every gate area. That can die, too! Agreed. Jesus, when did this country decide that we needed TV’s in every possible location? Restaurants, doctor’s offices, airports, even the fucking grocery store! ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/28 "2014-11-29T15:41:31Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Clearly, anyone who thinks this is some new madness, unprecedented in the history of mankind, is either too young or too old to remember the age of the boom box. > [@BigT](#): > > It’s not new, no, but it did seem to die out for a while with the walkman and other portable devices. Prior to the phone craze, most portable music players didn’t even have speakers. Good point – the 1980s “age of the boombox” was, in my experience, also the point when it became a standard practice in many \*enclosed \*public accommodations (food businesses, transport) to post signs instructing that music should only be played with headphones, because of the “boom” part. Then, yes, came the era of the Walkman/Discman-class players and two decades later the MP3 players (which we’ll revisit shortly), which were almost universally devoid of built-in speakers. My hypothesis is that the smartphone and the netbook/tablet OTOH led to a resurgence of the issue, by incorporating speakers and creating a population of users for whom tethered headsets were considered too much of a hassle, unsightly, easily lost, a risk for entanglement and breakage, etc. (Bluetooth earpieces meanwhile had the inconvenience of needing to get recharged, if small being also easily lost, and making you look like a deranged person speaking to invisible aliens, so people started preferring to use the speakerphone and FaceTime so the rest of us could see they were not speaking to invisible aliens). So you’ve got a lot of people walking around w/o a headset. And since MP3 (there it is) had already got much of that same segment acclimated to lo-fi sound, they easily adapted their expectation so that at home they’d consume content just using the cheap built-in speaker. And the next step is where this ties in with another phenomenon of public badhavior: the “people using their phones at the theater/church/interview/dinner” thing – people coming to expect that the way they do things in their house is the way they are entitled to act everywhere, every time, and everyone else just has to ignore/tolerate them. So let’s watch a video or carry out a conversation on the open speaker, and too bad if it bothers anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/29 "2014-12-01T16:52:02Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > Agreed. Jesus, when did this country decide that we needed TV’s in every possible location? Restaurants, doctor’s offices, airports, even the fucking grocery store! Have you ever seen the ones inside bathroom mirrors? Set up so you get this sort-of two-way mirror effect - you can see yourself, and the TV image? But they are even worse, because they don’t have sound. Yes, freedom from the incessant TV blasting is nice, but if by chance you caught something you really wanted to see, you’ll never know what was going on! ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/30 "2014-12-01T17:03:56Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I hate urban areas because they don’t fit my personality. Yes, I daresay that is true of any inhabited region. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/31 "2014-12-01T17:40:11Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > What is the [expletive] deal with this??? Back in the “boombox days,” I read a theory that it’s about claiming territory – the person is declaring his or her personal space and warning others not to intrude. This may be, as with so many other human behaviors, an unchanged remnant from millions of years of primate evolution. > [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > Agreed. Jesus, when did this country decide that we needed TV’s in every possible location? Restaurants, doctor’s offices, airports, even the fucking grocery store! Gas pumps too now. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/32 "2014-12-02T02:40:02Z")
Everywhere I go everyone IS on headphones, and never looks up or makes eye contact with anyone else. Yes, sometimes the volume is so loud you can hear outside of the headphones. Usually people have their heads down in their phones. I often find myself driving behind someone walking down the middle of the street on Beats/iPhone, oblivious to traffic and other surroundings. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/33 "2014-12-02T07:09:40Z")
Re: TV’s everywhere now: > [@Sailboat](#): > > Gas pumps too now. I’ll give TV’s at gas pumps a pass, for just one reason: Among all the commercials and insipid entertainment sound-bites, they also include local weather forecasts. When I’m on the road someplace away from home, I can see weather forecasts every time I stop for gas. That’s useful. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/34 "2014-12-03T17:38:13Z")
I ride the NYC subway every day and I _rarely_ encounter this. Everyone is _using_ their cell phone, but almost always with headphones. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/35 "2014-12-03T17:41:22Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > I go by train to work and back every day, around about an hour all up, and have for getting towards 10 years. Roughly half the people on the train are listening to music, playing a video game or watching a video. Not once have I ever seen anyone doing that without earbuds or headphones. > > So where are you and in what situation is this happening to you? I agree- nearly always earbuds. True, sometimes the volume is so loud I can hear it anyway. _(shudders to think what their hearing will be like in just a decade or two, then remembers “Karma can be a Bitch”)_ People do talk on phones without earbuds, yes. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/36 "2014-12-03T22:39:30Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > No. Unless I already know you and am traveling with you, don’t fekkin talk to me. Thank you, SeaDragonTattoo. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/37 "2014-12-03T22:54:10Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > No. Unless I already know you and am traveling with you, don’t fekkin talk to me. Fekkin nutjobs on the CTA are the last people I want to have a conversation with. And no, I don’t care to take that 50/50 chance you might not be a nutter. _Lighten up, Francis._ ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/38 "2014-12-03T22:58:56Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I am not a bumpkin despite my best efforts. Be careful who you throw random insults to on this board because you may not have any idea who you are speaking to. The random approach often works but you missed in this case. This is most hilarious line I’ve read yet today. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/39 "2014-12-03T23:04:49Z")
> [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > Usually people have their heads down in their phones. I often find myself driving behind someone walking down the middle of the street on Beats/iPhone, oblivious to traffic and other surroundings. That’s when a merchant vessel grade foghorn becomes a worthwhile aftermarket addition to your vehicle 😃 > [@DrDeth](#): > > I agree- nearly always earbuds. True, sometimes the volume is so loud I can hear it anyway. I’m buying stock in makers of hearing aids. And telling college entrants interested in the health fields to consider audiology. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734/40 "2014-12-03T23:06:52Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > I’m buying stock in makers of hearing aids. And telling college entrants interested in the health fields to consider audiology. I have actually given that advice! Young guy in Pre-Med, not wanting to be a actual Doc. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-headphones-extinct-or-is-it-courtesy/705734.md?page=3)