Listening is only part of communication — the other part is sharing one’s own information. The earbud revolution implies that information input becomes talking. I don’t see much discussion here about the implications of replacing thumbing into a phone with talking into an invisible microphone. Or the social consequences of having everyone chattering away to their own devices, even in public spaces.

Talking aloud in public is a social act surrounded by many conventions, reservations, and taboos. It is also something that makes many people acutely uncomfortable, and often for excellent reasons. To talk aloud is to share your information with the world, but much if not most information really doesn’t want to be shared.

How do you move toward an audio interface if all information input becomes public? That would be an information revolution that would dwarf listening through earbuds, profoundly changing ideas about privacy and control of information. Sticking an amplifier in one’s ear is a trivial change. Figuring out an input mechanism to complement it would truly revolutionize the world; talking into the air is not going to be it.