My relationship with headphones has morphed beyond recognition.
When I was a teenager, they were precious, a way of creating my own universe, a shield against all the bullshit my sad-boy-music-loving ass thought the world was throwing out me.
Whether I was out walking, catching public transport, or hanging in my room, wearing them felt like an active choice. The same is not true of AirPods and other true wireless earbuds.
The barrier is gone. They’re there. In my pocket. Always.
I’ll put it this way: I can’t remember the last time that I did the washing or hung up laundry or made the bed or completed any menial task, really, without them jammed in my ears.
Is there anything wrong with this per se? Probably not. Listening to music or a podcast makes those dull tasks more interesting.
Where I start to worry is how I’ve moved into using my AirPods for any menial task — and I really mean any.
I’ll put them in while making a cup of tea or walking between rooms, filling my earholes with sounds for smaller and smaller tasks. Basically, the times where it wouldn’t feel worth it to grab my over-ear headphones.
And I feel it.
My mind is busier, a sense of being overwhelmed always hovering there.
Now, I know the value of being bored, how it stimulates creativity and helps with problem solving, but it’s not a state I’m hungry for, so it’s a tough thing to practice.
I’ve tried listening to more in-depth content like audiobooks, but, more often than not, I slide back to consuming snippets of my silly little podcasts.
Constantly using my AirPods cocoons me from my environment in a way that using a speaker doesn’t, and I would switch… but the earbuds are so much more convenient.
In a way it’s a signifier of how remarkably successful tech’s rampage for our attention has been. True wireless technology provides a staggeringly easy way to fill the times you aren’t looking at a screen. It’s able to creep into every gap in our lives.
Constantly using AirPods feels so good, even though I know it’s bad. It’s the junkie’s paradox.
And maybe it’s good to admit I’ve got a problem.