To Headphone or Not?
Stepping out of my truck at the grocery store parking lot after work, I pause and grab my headphones. Then I stop completely, my feet on the pavement, my hand resting on a pair of AirPods. Do I want to interact with people or not? Tired from slinging rock, I would love to tune out the rest of the world. On the other hand, I just had headphones in at work all day. Wouldn't small talk with a random acquaintance be better?
It’s a cultural shift that snuck into our lives without much fanfare. I did some light research, and it turns out headphone use, or at least units sold, has doubled in the last decade. That number did not surprise me at all. I know, because I have two white removable earrings that temporarily decorate my ears each day. They also happen to play music.
More than anything, I blame availability and convenience. Ever since bluetooth headphones became a thing, it’s just too easy. Being able to leave your phone on the counter while you walk around the house with earbuds is lovely. Once I discovered vacuuming with noise canceling on, the deal was sealed.
There are times when my wife, daughter, and I all have headphones in. Good thing we didn’t get any for the cats, or no one would pay attention to one another. Quick side note - what do you think cats would listen to if they had a phone?
As I let this observation about headphones sink in, I’m tempted to focus on the negative, but I don’t know if it’s all bad.
My family doesn’t have headphones in when we are doing anything fun together. From Candyland to crafts, our focus is on the task at hand (mainly winning if it’s a game - we are all competitive). The headphones typically come out with chores, like doing the dishes. Catch me on any given night, and there are some awkward dance moves happening while I scrub the pans.
Headphones for kids in the car, I’ll call that another plus. On long trips, it’s nice to be able to have an adult conversation up front while my daughter giggles at a show in the back. I love the three of us chatting on the road, but after a certain number of hours everyone appreciates a little space.
The bigger gut check for me is what am I filling my ears with? I love audio books and R&B, but sometimes it just equates to background noise. Filler to vaguely keep my brain amused. When this happens, I have to ask myself what I’m missing while enveloped in this blanket of white noise. Turns out there are a lot of benefits to silence.
The best thing to happen when I take out the headphones is creativity. When I embrace the quiet, my mind wanders to new places. It thinks about my life from different angles. It finds weird solutions to quirky problems. Turns out my brain can be pretty smart when I give it a chance to talk.
See, it’s not the headphones that are the problem; it’s our time management. They are just tools, helpful for different seasons of the day. The problem happens when overuse blocks important moments of clarity only found through silence.
If silence is something new for you, know that it takes some time to get comfortable with it.
Hikes and road trips can be great for experiencing this truth, because they often take away the option of distraction. Moving for extended periods without any sound can become cathartic, if you can make it past the initial wave of boredom. When we were kids, everyone had to learn how to work through boredom because it was built-in to most days. Now we have the option to launch a barrage of sounds and words into our ears that might prevent deep reflection.
So the encouragement to myself is to be honest. When I go to place those buds in my ears, I have to ask, “Is this helpful or not?” That is why I left the headphones in my truck as I went shopping. I might not run into an old friend, but I might have a revelatory thought in the vegetable section.
