2 ms·

I was in college when the first iPod came out. As an early adopter that was super into my music that first year or so, wearing white headphones around campus ac

I was in college when the first iPod came out. As an early adopter that was super into my music that first year or so, wearing white headphones around campus actually came with more social interaction. It felt like everyone was staring at me and usually people constantly interrupted my jam sessions to ask me about them. The novelty quickly wore off for me, I realized I preferred a more private speakered environment for my jams. I also did and still suffer from massive pain caused from most in ear headphones, even the recent AirPods with adjustable silicone tips I use sparingly and never more than a hour or so. What was weird was about 2 years later it completely flipped. I had written off my iPod in public while the entire world adopted them. I went from being the only one on a bus with white corded buds, usually recipient of people’s gazes, I was being antisocial and everyone’s eyes were telling about it. To suddenly, I was the only one engaged. Everyone else was being antisocial. This was well before the iPhone but people still just stared at their play list and stopped interacting. A quiet bus full of college students was a strange thing to witness but it took over as the social norm.

Dracophoenix 4mo ago
> I also did and still suffer from massive pain caused from most in ear headphones, even the recent AirPods with adjustable silicone tips I use sparingly and never more than a hour or so. Have you tried replacing them with foam tips?
- conductr 4mo ago
  Yes, I feel like I’ve tried everything and usually just use over the ear when I need them. More than anything, I just optimize for not needing them. I have a dedicated office so I can use speakers. I use the AirPods on flights under 3 hours which is my majority. I just have sore ears after and live with it. But I don’t wear headphones anywhere around town like what the article is talking about it. I see it and decided not to participate way back because of the antisocial part that was obvious so long ago.
kjkjadksj 4mo ago
I don’t have airpods but I still use earpods for video conferencing. Honestly they fit and sound better (louder) when I have right and left switched.
- conductr 4mo ago
  Is this a primary preference or something you do because of your environment (busy coworking space/ cubicles/etc)? I use over the ear headphones when I need to but am thankful that I’ve almost always had a dedicated office and can use speakers and a microphone without disrupting anyone else. I also like the speakers because I can listen to voice/music while muting OS sounds or control volume separately pretty easily. The mic is just part of my camera, but it’s also a peripheral as my work laptop builtin is pretty crappy and I usually am docked with laptop closed. I do think over the ear is so much better at anything else at noise canceling and blocking out the outside noises in general. On a flight it’s leaps and bounds better at blocking the dull humming of the plain. I have to really crank up the volume on AirPods to be able to hear a movie or podcast. It ends up feeling like I’ve actually done more harm than good to my ear health. Although the compact carry is a huge benefit
  - kjkjadksj 4mo ago
    I only use them for zoom calls. Just what I had in the drawer with a microphone during covid and they have yet to break. I think the mic is better than the laptop mic since it is closer to the mouth. For any other audio I break out over ear monitors.
adsteel_ 4mo ago
That's my memory as well. Early '00s, I was also in college and seemingly one year campus went from a broadly friendly, social place to one with a lot of people, headphones in, focused on their own little world. There were Walkmans and disc Walkmans before that, of course, but MP3 players were a step change in social isolation, from my perspective. Bluetooth earbuds + a wave of streaming audio content have been another.
- conductr 4mo ago
  The time after I left campus life in mid00s was relatively normal until the AirPods came out then everyone everywhere started again with the headphones in most of the time, it’s been that way since. What I find interesting is how there seems to be some people that also are just always on the phone talking in public. It’s either a headphone call or often complimented with the handheld FaceTime. The forced eavesdropping I am subjected to makes it sound like nothing important is being discussed. Reminds me of my land line calls as a pre/teen where we just spent hours on the phone with a friend and basically had nothing to say, maybe we watched TV together and commented about the show. The phenomenon seems much more prevalent in certain demographic groups from my totally nonscientific observations and I find that interesting as well. From what I can tell, in jest, black women are not capable of grocery shopping without being on the phone with another person (and not talking about shopping list items).

Dracophoenix 4mo ago

> I also did and still suffer from massive pain caused from most in ear headphones, even the recent AirPods with adjustable silicone tips I use sparingly and never more than a hour or so. Have you tried replacing them with foam tips?

conductr 4mo ago
Yes, I feel like I’ve tried everything and usually just use over the ear when I need them. More than anything, I just optimize for not needing them. I have a dedicated office so I can use speakers. I use the AirPods on flights under 3 hours which is my majority. I just have sore ears after and live with it. But I don’t wear headphones anywhere around town like what the article is talking about it. I see it and decided not to participate way back because of the antisocial part that was obvious so long ago.

kjkjadksj 4mo ago

I don’t have airpods but I still use earpods for video conferencing. Honestly they fit and sound better (louder) when I have right and left switched.

conductr 4mo ago
Is this a primary preference or something you do because of your environment (busy coworking space/ cubicles/etc)? I use over the ear headphones when I need to but am thankful that I’ve almost always had a dedicated office and can use speakers and a microphone without disrupting anyone else. I also like the speakers because I can listen to voice/music while muting OS sounds or control volume separately pretty easily. The mic is just part of my camera, but it’s also a peripheral as my work laptop builtin is pretty crappy and I usually am docked with laptop closed. I do think over the ear is so much better at anything else at noise canceling and blocking out the outside noises in general. On a flight it’s leaps and bounds better at blocking the dull humming of the plain. I have to really crank up the volume on AirPods to be able to hear a movie or podcast. It ends up feeling like I’ve actually done more harm than good to my ear health. Although the compact carry is a huge benefit
- kjkjadksj 4mo ago
  I only use them for zoom calls. Just what I had in the drawer with a microphone during covid and they have yet to break. I think the mic is better than the laptop mic since it is closer to the mouth. For any other audio I break out over ear monitors.

adsteel_ 4mo ago

That's my memory as well. Early '00s, I was also in college and seemingly one year campus went from a broadly friendly, social place to one with a lot of people, headphones in, focused on their own little world. There were Walkmans and disc Walkmans before that, of course, but MP3 players were a step change in social isolation, from my perspective. Bluetooth earbuds + a wave of streaming audio content have been another.

conductr 4mo ago
The time after I left campus life in mid00s was relatively normal until the AirPods came out then everyone everywhere started again with the headphones in most of the time, it’s been that way since. What I find interesting is how there seems to be some people that also are just always on the phone talking in public. It’s either a headphone call or often complimented with the handheld FaceTime. The forced eavesdropping I am subjected to makes it sound like nothing important is being discussed. Reminds me of my land line calls as a pre/teen where we just spent hours on the phone with a friend and basically had nothing to say, maybe we watched TV together and commented about the show. The phenomenon seems much more prevalent in certain demographic groups from my totally nonscientific observations and I find that interesting as well. From what I can tell, in jest, black women are not capable of grocery shopping without being on the phone with another person (and not talking about shopping list items).