# What are people listening to when walking around with earphones plugged into their cell phone **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 14, 2018, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886 "2018-07-14T08:58:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/1 "2018-07-14T08:58:31Z")
I see a lot of people (mostly teenagers and ones in their 20s ) walking/jogging around with earphones plugged into their smart phone. I am assuming that they are listing to music stored on their smart phone similar to Walkmans in the 80s, portable CD/MP3 players later, then Ipods, are more recently smart phones. Can’t think of anything else ? Unless they have a microphone attached so they can have a 2 way conversation while being outside. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/2 "2018-07-14T09:05:33Z")
I think you nailed it. Music or phone call or maybe podcasts ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/3 "2018-07-14T09:09:23Z")
Missed the podcasts although Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/4 "2018-07-14T09:24:38Z")
While I’m not in the demographic asked about, and I use Bluetooth rather than wired headphones, I’m listening to books. I spend about forty hours a month walking for exercise and recently started using Audible as an alternative to my local library’s small selection of downloadable books. ---
**Author:** ![ssgenius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@ssgenius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ssgenius)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/5 "2018-07-14T09:30:56Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > While I’m not in the demographic asked about, and I use Bluetooth rather than wired headphones, I’m listening to books. I spend about forty hours a month walking for exercise and recently started using Audible as an alternative to my local library’s small selection of downloadable books. Good point. I listened to some books on cassettes years ago, so I assume this is similar ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/6 "2018-07-14T09:35:28Z")
What’s a “cassette”? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/7 "2018-07-14T09:44:38Z")
Music for me. I have a 64 GB SD card in my phone, so that holds nearly my entire album collection. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/8 "2018-07-14T09:55:49Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > What’s a “cassette”? 😛 It’s a miniature cass. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/9 "2018-07-14T09:58:37Z")
Many of them are listening to the directives of their alien overlords. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/10 "2018-07-14T12:31:08Z")
I have mine wired to my cats … ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/11 "2018-07-14T12:37:27Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > What’s a “cassette”? 😛 It was a vast improvement over the unsuccessful books on eight-track format. You could get Stephen King’s _The Stand_ in a 36 eight-track version. The backpack full of tapes you had to carry along hindered wide acceptance. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/12 "2018-07-14T13:20:27Z")
> [@ssgenius](#): > > I see a lot of people (mostly teenagers and ones in their 20s ) walking/jogging around with earphones plugged into their smart phone. > I am assuming that they are listing to music stored on their smart phone similar to Walkmans in the 80s, portable CD/MP3 players later, then Ipods, are more recently smart phones. > > Can’t think of anything else ? > Unless they have a microphone attached so they can have a 2 way conversation while being outside. I’m wondering why this is a puzzle. They’re listening to the same stuff that people have been using transistor radios, Sony Walkmans, portable CD players, iPods, etc., for ever since portable media players first became popular in the 1950s. So, yeah, music, news, sports, talk programming (i.e., podcasts), audiobooks, whatever is available in audio form. And, yes, some people are also having phone conversations. I pretty much always put in an earphone to talk on a mobile phone. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/13 "2018-07-14T13:30:08Z")
I listen to podcasts usually, but I also listen to nothing. If I’m at the grocery store, or walking a local trail, and not feeling sociable, I put in my earbuds even if I have nothing I want to listen to. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/14 "2018-07-14T14:07:57Z")
I think that modern smartphones have mostly killed off the stand-alone MP3 player market. Why bother with two devices when one will do? (And MicroSD cards come in up to 512 GB sizes now–that’s a whole lot of music, even if you chose to store it as WAV files. Compress them and you are talking a hundred thousand songs.) ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/15 "2018-07-14T14:38:35Z")
They aren’t listening to anything, they’re just pretending to deter people from talking to them. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/16 "2018-07-14T15:31:28Z")
> [@blindboyard](#): > > They aren’t listening to anything, they’re just pretending to deter people from talking to them. My daughter does this. I mainly listen to audioboooks. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/17 "2018-07-14T16:46:22Z")
Radio? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/18 "2018-07-14T19:08:54Z")
Since data limits are mostly a thing of the past: Spotify. (Streaming music) Just drove across Europa, from Holland to Italy and the 4G dropped only for 30 mins on a pass in Austria. Total data consumption in 13 hours of driving: 400MB ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/19 "2018-07-14T19:44:58Z")
iTunes, podcasts, phone, pandora… ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886/20 "2018-07-14T21:12:09Z")
A friend of mine has an app on her phone that motivates her when she’s Jogging. I’m not sure what it’s called but the way she describes it is there’s a story you listen to about an zombie invasion. Every now and then it says you’re being attacked by zombies and you have to jog faster (the app tracks how fast and far you’re jogging) to escape them or you take damage. It also tells you to jog a certain distance to collect supplies to heal up and defend your home against the zombies. Sounds like fun if you’re a jogger. I googled and tracked it down. It’s called [Zombies, Run!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombies,_Run!). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-people-listening-to-when-walking-around-with-earphones-plugged-into-their-cell-phone/817886.md?page=2)