My wife and I walk every night, it is very refreshing to just clear our heads for a bit and get away from it all. We usually pass about 20 people, and I would say that at least half of those walking alone have iPods on, and I just don’t get it. You’re outdoors, listen to the birds, the wind, water, nature…disconnect from the real world for 45 minutes, it will still be there when you get home! Am I the only one who notices this, or cares?
There’s plenty of ‘outdoors’ around where I live that has no redeeming sounds. I’m sure most people who listen to the iPod outdoors ARE disconnecting from the real world, just differently than you would.
I walk with mine as well, typically with some fast paced music I can really step to. Otherwise, I’d be tempted to toddle along at my own pace which really wouldn’t do much for my heartrate. 
But if I don’t wear mine, the crackheads will try to talk to me.
I’m kind of an odd case I guess, and not least because I don’t have an iPod. Because if I’m tense, nervous, worried, whatever, music lets me disjoin from it. Clears my head, helps me to relax. I’m an odd case because the music that would do it for me is very loud, hard-driving guitar. Loud screaming guitars, Hendrix, Led Zep, Robin Trower, any number of bands. That would relax me. Center me.
I do both. Wearing what amount to earplugs is a bit disorienting at first, but if you want to listen to some music and won’t get another chance, then hey, why not?
This is the same for me, on many occassions. Or, I might just be walking to get from A to B rather than for the sake of walking, and fancy listening to something as I do so (no different from having music on in my car). Other times, though, I will be unplugged and taking everything in. It depends.
Yeah, I carry an MP3 player when I walk. I get bored easily, and my favorite tunes keep my mind occupied. It is my disconnection from the real world.
I had a 45 minute walk to class last semester. I listened to my ipod the same way someone commuting by car might listen to the radio. And it did make me feel wonderfully disconnected from the world.
I’ve noticed it, and I agree – at least when it’s a matter of going for a walk for the sake of walking. There’s a form of Zen called, oddly enough, walking Zen, where the point is to be totally in the moment of walking – and if walking is what you’re doing, you should walk. If you’re exercising or commuting, then, fine, that’s different – but there’s something kind of disturbing about people who are afraid to be alone with their own thoughts for even five minutes.
If I’m walking in town, purely to get somewhere, then yes I might listen to music (although I don’t like not being able to hear traffic, serial killers etc coming up behind me, so I don’t do it that often). But if I’m out for a walk in the countryside, I want to hear nature, not some lame music that I was into last time I bothered to update my MP3 player.
When I walk around, I like to check things out. I like to see people and chat about their flowers, their dogs, their kids, their yard. So, naturally I prefer others who are the same way.
People who always walk around with something attached to their ear come across as anti-social – they’re simply sending the signal that they don’t want to converse with people. It doesn’t surprise me that so many dopers do it.
So, I don’t know if I’d say it “bugs” me, but I do prefer people who are more social.
Different strokes for different folks. I’m observant, and I watch people. But often times I enjoy walking and hearing music. What’s odd or strange about that? Before iPods you sang to yourself or whistled. There are other times when I want to hear the outdoors.
I definitely don’t want to talk to folks when I’m on a walk. That’s probably the reason I am walking - I talk to people all day. That might be the case for the people you see with iPods. They’re creating a space to get away in public. Trust me, it’s for the best - it keeps a lot of us sane.
Bolding mine.
Do you and your wife talk at all when you are out walking to clear your heads? Why? Why don’t you each listen to the birds, the wind, water, nature, and disconnect from the real world? You can talk when you get home! 
In short, different people have different reasons for walking outside. Maybe they’re just on the way somewhere and not really interested in listening to birds. Maybe they are listening to an ornithological guide to Orlando, FL while walking and keeping track of how many ruby-throated woodpeckers they see. Maybe they have walked that walk 5,000 times and feel they’ve heard every wave sound and bird call they could ever want to hear in their entire lives and would rather listen to Green Day while enjoying the feeling of the sun on their faces. Who knows.
I feel it’s unsafe. I’m not the only one - when I was in college, the college president would stop her car, get out, and rip your earphones off your head. Then again, I went to school between two ghettoes and it wasn’t necessarily safe. But I think you look like a big fat target with your eyes straight ahead and your ears full of earphone and no idea that somebody’s coming up behind you.
I would like to listen to music when I walk, but I feel vulnerable. I can’t hear anything around me. I don’t want to talk to people but I want to be able to hear someone yelling, “LOOK OUT!” I like to use my ipod when I’m on the treadmill or stairmaster, but the times I’ve done so on walks, I’ve been paranoid about getting run over by a car I didn’t hear coming.
Plus, I like to experience the world around me on a walk and the music interferes with that.
ETA: glad to see that **Zsofia ** feels the same.
So she would prove that walking with headphones was unsafe by committing an assault? Genius.
Wearing headphones is also a good way to signal that you don’t want to chat with anyone, but would rather spend that time conversing with your inner self. Not everyone enjoys being hit up for conversation when they intended to go out and commune visually with nature.
This probably doesn’t apply as much if you’re out on a nature-type walk, but sometimes when I’m walking outside at lunch I will put my ear buds in (or at least one) because I find it greatly cuts down on the number of people who stop and ask me for money for the bus “because they lost their ticket and just need a few dollars to get home.” I’ve been seeing some of those people for several years now pulling the same line. Appearing to be engrossed in something causes them to bypass me and hit up someone else.
If that college president had ripped headphones off my head, she would get one warning of “don’t EVER touch me like that again” and the next time I’d be forced to assume she was a mugger and thus defend myself by punching her in the nose.
If I’m out just for the sake of walking and enjoying the world, then I’m fine listening to birds and bugs and what not. But I live surrounded by “nature”. I want to hear birds, and coyotes, I just open my windows. Most of the time when I walk, it’s to GET somewhere, and if it’s through a neighborhood, or just down some residential streets, I’m listening to what I want to hear, not what is coming from every car or home along the way.
Outdoors doesn’t always mean that there’s much nature to listen to. Beyond the occasional barking dog, you don’t here much when walking around Arlington besides the sound of traffic. I think most people would prefer music.
There are lots of ways to disconnect from the real world. Some do it by walking through nature; some do it by listening to music.
Many would argue that there isn’t much point in buying a portable music player if you’re only going to use it at home.
You’re certainly not the only one to notice it, but your perception of the situation seems a bit skewed. It may be a safety concern, but that’s the only problem I see with it.
And again on the subject of the university president. I cannot believe that the psycho gets away with doing that. Does she also chase down people on bikes and slap helmets on them? I’d imagine that biking sans helmet is more dangerous that walking while listening to an mp3 player.