Why you need to do a Headphone detox
Imagine you are walking in the park near your apartment or maybe in your university or just taking a short break from work and all you see is people of various age groups with one thing in common — everyone is glued to their screens and have their headphones on.
It wasn’t all that hard to imagine this scenario was it — because this is the reality. Headphones are nothing new and special, they are just another gadget most of us use daily and it does give us an easy escape when the noise around us seem too overwhelming or we are just not in the mood to interact.
While using headphones does have quite a few positive aspects to it, in this write up I will be addressing the concerns relating to their excessive usage.
The disconnect
Now, we do not even have the time to make eye contact with people we meet on our way to wherever it is we are going to. We always have our attention divided between this and that.
It makes us feel like we can disconnect from the world and plug in to our own with a podcast playing while we complete our daily 5000 steps.
For some people it is music and for others, some motivating youtube video or whatever it is that works for them. Somehow, spinning down into a spiral of a topic that deeply interests us seem more exciting than a literal person who is trying to connect with you.
Loss of spontaneous connection
We used to organically connect with people because of an incidental eye contact or by way of being aware of our surroundings and even offering to help someone carrying heavy bags — but now we are all so engulfed in our own little lives that all these things that sound trivial are actually slipping out of our daily lives.
With our eyes glued to our phones and headphones in place what space have we left for anything out of the ordinary to occur? What will happen is already predicted and decided, the next thing on the playlist will play and then the next and the next thereafter.
With everything available to us so quickly and without much effort, what motivation do we have to talk to others. In reality, it does a good job at isolating people even while standing in a crowd and creating a divide leaving no space for any connection.
What are we missing out on
So, what are we missing out on when we are not listening to our surroundings and are constantly bombarding ourselves with external inputs?
We are missing out on noticing gestures, on conversations from people who would have otherwise reached out to us had we not seemed so busy. So we might be missing out on a friendly smile, an interesting conversation, or even the subtle beauty of our surroundings.
In emergency situations, wearing noise-canceling headphones and listening to music at high volumes can be problematic, especially when we’re outdoors. Additionally, frequent use of headphones at high volumes can lead to long-term damage to our hearing abilities.
Breaking the Habit
What can we do to break the habit of wearing our headphones so often? Leaving the headphones at home, or keeping them in your bags and not using them unless required like for an office call is one of the simpler ways to take control of this seemingly small addiction.
I know it seems not doable for those of us who really are using headphones day in and out, but this is what it means to detox — breaking a habit, looking up, paying attention.
Think of it as a gentle detox — a chance to break a habit, lift your gaze, and engage with the world around you. It’s an opportunity to experience the little joys of life that we might otherwise miss.
