Headphones
have become the great escape. This morning as I walked my dogs Roxanne and Louis
we walked past this young man headed to the middle school bus stop. This young guy
had on headphones and never even glanced in my direction. The morning sounds
were all around us, chirping birds, leaves rustling and even a nice lady
walking by with her puppies saying “Hello” and he heard none of it. He was in
the zone and life was his oyster.
Full
disclosure, when I run I wear headphones, but I only have one bud in my ear
playing music to keep my feet going. The other ear is available to hear cars
coming, birds chirping and for paranoia’s sake the random person chasing me (which
thankfully has not happened). I still hear the birds and barking dogs, people
saying hello and any other things I need to hear. The thing is everywhere you
go now you see people in headphones. Even my husband who works from home will
roam the house while he is “In a meeting” and until I look at him and realize
he is “unavailable” I am yammering on in a conversation. Nice!
I am
still in debate with myself as to whether this is a good thing or not. I’m wondering
if this disconnection will make all of us less personable and unable to
communicate. I’m sure that was a big debate when television burst on the scene
many years ago. Change is always hard no matter what it is. I suppose instead
of assuming the young man this morning was listening to music, maybe I should
think about the chance he was actually listening to a book he downloaded. Maybe
as I grow older I am just becoming a big fuddy duddy!
Reality
is life is evolving so fast that keeping up is tough. Music alone has gone from
records to eight track tapes to cassettes on to CD’s and now we download music
to our phone. At this rate we may just get a chip implanted in our heads one
day so we can answer calls and hear music without carrying this phone and
portable photo album everywhere. Oh geez, did I just invent something? I sure
hope not!
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