I agree it’s not antisocial or isolationist. I manage to be both just fine without them. What I have a hard time understanding is how people love music so much that they have to be surrounded by it all the time.
I actually agree, somewhat with Zenster regarding making one’s self vulnerable by limiting an important sense of hearing. I love to wear headphones for my long commute, but when I am in an unfamiliar urban environment I keep them off for personal safety.
I think most folks are used to other people wearing headphones in public and social situations. Some of my more gracious friends would not talk to me because they did not want to interrupt my music listening–until I reminded them that all I had to do was press the replay button–a lot of my “older” friends are still conditioned to the hassle of cassettes and lps.
Exsqueeze me! Where does it say that I was “upset” about this? Please do not project your own mistaken perceptions upon me.
Yes, I feel obliged to speculate regarding whether it is “isolationist” or “antisocial” to wear headphones in public, but where do I mention taking any umbrage at it?
You’ve already seen more than one poster in this thread acknowledge how they may be increasing their chances of being mugged. I take this as solid support of my own convictions.
I’ll cheerfully explain my own stance on the issue. I tend to be a fairly sociable person (unless you count all the opinions of my online detractors). I also enjoy being of service to people and society in general. This is not due to any deep seated belief in altruism (quite the contrary), but because I enjoy having the ability to be of assistance. Personally, I would hate to think that someone near me keeled over and I was unable to notice it (or aid them) because of the headphones covering my ears. I’ll even venture that the discomfort of compromising my own personal security might possibly outweigh any social commitments. As an egoist, I really do not have a problem with that.
More than anything, some of the most rewarding relationships in my entire life came from chance meetings that easily might have been thwarted had I been ensconced in my own sonic shell.
This is a critical aspect with respect to whatever antisocial notes are specified in the OP. Again, I think that the lack of external input may readily overshadow any sacrifice of personal contact (or avoidance thereof). For these reasons, I perceive society as a whole being the real loser in this situation. Through such artificial barricades and nonessential individuation (the latter being conceded as potentially arguable), our population further isolates itself from the primeval. I see this as lamentable and nothing more than retrogressive (or worse).
Fill thine own ears overmuch and your foe’s challenge goes unheard.
I noticed that here in Prague (where public transport is the norm), it is mainly the pretty ladies and angst-ridden teens that are tuned-in (out?). I think the ladies do it to stave off unwanted attention. It seems to work. If I were a pretty woman (oh joyous of dreams! er…, I mean…uh, forget it) getting hit on all the time by strangers, then I would probably do the same thing. While some might think this is anti-social (well, it is, technically), it is also for survival reasons. There have been PLENTY of times I have seen an attractive girl getting chatted up by a stinky drunk or some sleazy foreigner. I’ve even had to intervene on occasion. But with headphones on, no one bothers them.
-Tcat
I completely agree.
Going out among other people, among lots of other people, is to take part in a kind of a social contract.
Wearing a headset is copping out.
But I personally have a lot less trouble with people wearing a music headset than a phone headset. People walking around talking on the phone not only look idiotic to me, they truly demonstrate the sad unraveling of society’s fabric.
Well, since I don’t have any notable foes in downtown Atlanta, I feel secure in my headphones. And I’ve just ordered another Discman. I love contributing to the downfall of society!
Just about the only time I listen to music is when I am walking or on a bus. I tend to have too deep of an attention span, and when I listen to music I get pretty transfixed and can’t really do anything else that requires thought. I’m not one of those people that can listen to music while going about my everyday life.
But it’s perfect for when I’m out and about. Something about music sounds better when your moving. Most people listen to music in their car, but I don’t have one of those. So I listen to it when I’m walking or bussing around. And, as I mentioned earlier, spending a couple hours every day just trying to transport yourself around town makes for a couple really boring hours. Music helps me from having to spend those two hours staring into space trying to think up amusing thoughts.
When I have my headphones on, I pay more attention through sight, so I suspect that I would see someone keel over instead. I also do not turn my music up very loudly at all; for me it is a soundtrack, not an audio equivalent of whitewash. It also helps prevent me from dozing off on my ride home (a constant problem with me), which I would suggest is much more of a “mug me please” cue than merely wearing headphones.
I have no problem with helping people when I have my headphones on. If I see someone looking lost/confused, I take my headphones off to signify to them that yes, I can tell there’s a problem and am available.
When I have my headphones on, it means I want to listen to music without disturbing my fellow commuters. Anyone who has had to endure blaring music from a sullen youth carrying a boombox can appreciate this, I’m sure.
Major Nitpick:
If they’re killing people with the headphones and have no remorse about it, it’s antisocial.
If they’re just opting out of social interaction, it’s asocial.
As to the topic. It seems like it’s an insult to the rest of us when someone is not fully present. It’s the same problem with cell phone conversations at the mall (although those are even more obnoxious cause you have to hear some intimate conversation the person is having).
It’s almost like if I’m here and now, and they’re saying that here and now isn’t enough; they get to be here and now without acknowledging their responsibility to share in the experience.
I see no problem with wearing headphones in public. Probably because I do it all the time. I would rather listen to my music than talk to the majority of people, and when there IS someone I want to talk to, I can take my headphones off. So its not really that I’m anti-social, I’m more anti-socializing-with-people-who-suck.
I really don’t live in an area with alot of muggings (read: middle of nowhere), so I can’t comment on that.
But really, what’s the problem with headphones in public?
Yes!
Exactly.
Headset Nation.
This is much how I am as well. There’s been many a time when I take of my headphones to give people directions (sometimes the panhandlers still get me using this tactic, looking like they need directions then asking for change once the phones are off…) but I will stop to help people.
And anyway like silly_duck I take my headphones off if there is someone I want to talk to/know/recognize as being a friend of a friend and say hello. It’s been awhile since I’ve heard of any muggings in this town anyway and then only from the same street kids/meth heads that stole my discman in the first place.
I think society can probably survive the use of headphones. It may be a little isolationist. I don’t see it as anti-social if used outside a setting where social interaction is not normally expected to occur. I clearly need to develop a longer list of nemisises since their use does not seem to me to be particularly dangerous. I haven’t heard of a big increase in muggings around here for listeners, but I think the use of headphones may be unwise in say, drivers or paramedics.
I think Zenster’s initial premise is too vague to have any real meaning. In public doesn’t have that much context to it. For example, I consider having a drink in a bar, riding on a public bus and sitting on a park bench as being conducted “in public” but I have wildly divergent expectations of social interaction for each of those.
I completely disagree with this statement. Far too many of the other posters on this thread have made statements all making the same point: headphones have become a necessary response to those people who cross social boundaries with unwanted, uninvited attention. Are these people headset wearing commuters any more or less asocial than those who insist on commuting boxed up in their mobile personal containment devices koff cars. If you and I happen to be riding the same crosstown bus, that is not a tacit invitation for you to ask me for money, ask me to join your church, make lewd comments or otherwise engage me.
Is it tacky to wear a headset to a party? You bet! Does wearing a headset while waiting in line at the bank discourage other waiting folks from talking to you? No doubt. But why should that encounter be particularly special? Why would Jo Everybody embrace it?
I’m glad you had those experiences. My anecdotal experience is that most of the chance encounters I have in the daily life are with Ding-dongs who are a complete and utter waste of my time!
Society isn’t losing out because we isolate ourselves, society is losing out because we’ve exchanged Teevee for dialogue and consumption for entertainment, but that’s another rant for another day.
Lastly, how does a failure to safeguard one’s own personal safety speak to that person’s aversion (or not) to social interaction?
Sign me Ignoring the evangelist on the #63 via Camden Ct.
Headphone issues aside, I’d like to shout your words from the rooftops. You have identified an even greater source of societal abberation than (admittedly) somewhat benign music listening practices.
Someday, I will have to start another rant about sh!theads who walk into a party of new people while they continue to yak away on their cell phone. Finish the effing conversation outside and then join the fun you pompous self-important rut bags.
There’s a difference between letting the music play in the background and totally immersing yourself in it. If the phones diminish the ambient sounds, try putting them in front of your ears instead of right on them. I’ve noticed that I can listen to music with headphones and still have excellent auditory awareness.
But I don’t need headphones. My music plays in my head 24/7. Seriously, it never stops.
Tomcat, perhaps you were in another lifetime. It’s actually quite common.
Working on an assembly line, I wear headphones most days. Since there usually isn’t a cow-orker within shouting distance, it’s hardly isolationist for me. Wearing them is a safety violation, though, and occasionally we get a supervisor who enforces that rule. When that occurs, I gladly hand over the radio itself, but keep the headphones to wear just to discourage inane conversation from passerby.
Queen tonya, without wishing to put too fine a point on it, there may well be really, really good reasons why you are not supposed to wear headphones while at work. Even if there are no cow-orkers for you to hear anywhere near your station, there still may be sirens, alarms or notification from someone who enters your area to warn you of imminent danger.
I don’t know what you assemble, but much of the semiconductor capital equipment I have built demands that you be able to hear any leaks of compressed gas or when a vacuum pump starts laboring and such. Sometimes your life can depend on it.
Then again, for many people, the reason they go out among other people to conduct business of some sort(or enjoy themselves). They want to buy a carton of milk, check out the picasso at the museum or get to the office, not having a long, facinating conversing with some stranger on the bus about watching paint dry.
You know, I was yelled at by some old guy in a grocery store not too long ago for standing in line with my 'phones on. I told him: “Hey, man, if you listened to music this good, you’d have headphones on all the time, too.”
M.