The reason it bothers me is that I think people have a responsibility to pay attention to their environment when they are out in public. If you are at home or work or sitting down on a bus or train, then using the earbuds is fine. I’d even concede that using an earbud in one ear is okay. But if you are walking or for gods sake riding a bicycle: Pay attention to what is going on around you. This also applies to people who play the radio too loud in their cars. If you don’t hear the police car or ambulance until they are on your bumper: your radio is too loud and you need to check your rear view mirror more often.
I know some people will say,“I’m just walking on the sidewalk. I don’t need to know anything except what is right in front of me.” Do you take the earbuds off you cross the street or come to a corner? Did you never encounter a bicycle or a Segway or a jogger on your sidewalk?. People will say, “It’s my life. I can walk around oblivious if I want to.” I’ll concede that you have a right to kill yourself, but not on the hood of my car or to cause other people to be injured or killed when the car swerves to miss you. You don’t have the right to step in the path of a jogger or a Segway because you didn’t hear them coming.
Only if they actually run into me!
I wear a pair of actual headphones when I’m out walking, and I just don’t play my music loudly enough to drown out the ambient noise. I doubt most people do.
Besides, the cell phone crowd seems to be far, far worse about not paying attention to where they’re going, since it involves much more concentration than having music playing.
Some people are capable of listening to their own private soundtrack without completely ignoring what’s happening around them. These people don’t bother me.
However, if I can hear the music, or if it seems that the listener is a danger to him/herself or others, yes, that bothers me. Same thing goes for the people on their cells, ignoring everyone and everything but their phone convo.
I always have music on when I’m running or walking but I would never wear them if I was say,. walking around the city shopping or any place where I’d be encountering a lot of people. When I’m out doing something I want to be fully aware and engaged in whatever it is, no matter how mundane. So yes, people out walking around with earbuds in any other context but exercising strike me as individuals that constantly have to be entertained. Maybe annoyed isn’t exactly the right word but there is prejudice on my part.
I’m one of these people. However, I’m never listening to music. I’m listening to books or other spoken word files nearly all the time. There’s no need for them to be loud, so I’m perfectly capable of paying attention to the world around me.
I don’t, of course, but that’s because I’m working toward being an absent-minded professor. See also: eyebrows, crazy.
I have ear canal earbuds, which are very effective at blocking out ambient noise, so when out and about in public I tend to keep only one ear plugged in. I’ve had a couple of close calls with cyclists (my fault both times) when I had both in my ears, so decided it was unwise. I can usually hear cars, but not always.
I don’t think it’s impossible to have music on and still be fully alert and I don’t begrudge people for it unless it appears clear that they’re not. Hell, there have been times where for whatever reason I didn’t really feel like listening to music but still had headphones on just so people would leave me alone.
I think for a lot of people doing that, music is much more of a background thing and they’re not really actively listening to and interpretting it, even if they are mouthing along with the lyrics. In general, they’re a lot less of an issue than the people wearing headsets with their phones because, not only are they likely paying a lot more attention and thus paying less to what they’re doing, but sometimes they’ll look like they’re talking to you or just be really loud and obnoxious with their conversation. Those are the people that annoy me.
Some people specifically talked about not be isolated from their environment, but other people were talking about noise cancelling features and stuff. Do these people change earbuds when they go outside? I doubt it. One guy mentioned his were loud enough the bus driver complained about the noise.
I walk around the lake by my house with one ear covered and the other open to listen to books or the news. Any other place forget it. I’ve actually had people ask me if the radio in my car is broke, because it is never on.
I stopped trying to listen to music while doing something else years ago. My brain just doesn’t hear it. I keep earmuffs on my desk when the ambient noise is a distraction.
Gotta agree with the replies that point out multitasking. Nine times out of ten, when I’m walking outside, I’m listening to music or podcasts. However, ten times out of ten, I’m aware of what’s going on around me. It’s not that difficult to look carefully before you cross a street and walk to one side of the sidewalk so others can go around you, if need be.
As far as bicycles or cars are concerned, where I live, only pedestrians are legally allowed on the sidewalk. Does that stop bicycles from using them? Nope and, of course, I could get clocked by one but, if that happens, they fucked up. Not me. And cars? Well, if you were to hit me with your car, you’d be driving through a crosswalk against the light.
No doubt there are space cadet pedestrians out there. I see them all the time, but earbuds or even cell phones aren’t primarily responsible.
I don’t live in an place that’s urban enough for it to bother me when people do this - if someone’s out walking in my neighborhood, they’re unlikely to encounter many other people, bikes or cars. I listen to podcasts when I walk for exercise and I’ve never had a car or bike sneak up on me. I have seen people driving with earbuds in, which scares the crap out of me. I don’t see how they can be aware enough of their surroundings to be safe.
It’s funny cause I wear headphones out in public and people start talking to me right off, even though they can clearly see I have headphones on. So then I have to tell them wait and take them off.
Now I’ve discovered that people who describe listening to music while they are walking as multitasking are pretty annoying also.
[ul]
[li]listening to the news - multitasking.[/li][li]listening to a podcast - multitasking.[/li][li]listening to a book - multitasking.[/li][li]listening to the White Album for the 100th time - not multitasking.[/li][/ul]
It would be be more accurate to describe listening to music as a distraction from a task you find boring. Unless you are writing music reviews, it isn’t multitasking.
Actually, now I am reminded of an old Science Fiction story where the character was watching/listening to the news while eating breakfast and there would be the headlines for ten seconds or so and they would go to the next story, unless he pressed the tell me more button and then he heard the whole story. You do it automatically when you read the news, but it would be nice to be able to listen to the news that way. It would be nice button on the TV remote also.