I was waiting for pedestrian traffic lights to change the other day, when I heard a voice behind me saying: ‘Hey, how are you this gorgeous day?’ in a deeply perfect voice.
It was a gorgeous autumn day, with a little chill and the sun peeking out shyly from big fluffy clouds!
I turned around rather, already smiling, and looked at him. As I beheld this gorgeous specimen, my mind raced hoping I’d come up with a really memorable response!
Before I could say anything, he said “Oh, that’s awesome! Yeah, I’m on my way right now!”, and crossed the street.
AirPods!
He wore AirPods and wasn’t speaking to me!
With some hair styles you really can’t tell, and truthfully, I don’t often look inside people’s ears.
Half my neighbourhood wears AirPods. So, this certainly isn’t new, but it’s annoying AF when you think someone is talking to you, and they haven’t even realized you exist.
It’s less annoying with traditional headphones because you can see the eternally tangled chords dangling out of ears a mile away.
Later that day, I walked by a young girl who was talking into her attentive AirPods (yes, I noticed this time). As she walked by me, I heard her say ‘… and it just sucks because it’s so hard to meet people these days…”.
These two experiences got me thinking about the realities we live in.
Awareness
The obvious convenience of AirPods is that you can do all your errands and go for run, all while chatting with loved ones – which is awesome!
The shadow side is that you are generally not aware of your physical reality and who is walking around you. This is something incredibly important to me – awareness of Self and of what is around. There’s a safety aspect here which is valid, but for me it’s more relational.
As a person who barely wears ear-phones or head-phones these days, I am certainly not a part of the AirPals gang. I barely have my phone with me when I’m running errands or just having a walk. This allows me to notice my fellow pedestrian, hear what they are saying (into their AirPods), and then write a blog about my pondering on the subjects they inspire.
I used to wear headphones often, especially while commuting - a nice podcast or a song list. But and amazing thing happened when I stopped some years ago. I got talking to people in my neighbourhood, something I just never did before. Turns out, some of them are pretty awesome and we’re friends even today!
To me, an AirPod feels disconnected from the present moment, beyond intentional and reasonable use, I mean. Sort-of like the chubby Axion Humans in the cartoon Wall-e, who are fully connected to each other, but only virtually, with no context of touch and knowing.
In this image above, the Wall-e (the cute robot) is desperately trying to get the attention of the humans, who are all on these hover-chairs talking online. None of them notice or hear him.
Anti-Social Moments
We all have them.
And in those moments, it absolutely feels like taking a little shelter by having earphones or AirPods in your ears makes lets you stay in your own mind; and keeps bothersome people, noises and situations to a minimum.
Totally!
My teenage cousin once told me that he wears his sometimes even though he isn’t listening to anything, just so that no one will talk to him. Other times, he just forgets they are in there.
But I wonder if, collectively, we got a bit complacent with hiding. We accepted that the solution to annoying people, undesirable situations and awkward moments is to hide in plain sight and make ourselves unavailable for engagement.
We never learned how to actually handle these situations with creative grace, solid boundaries and learning from and with moments of connection. We learn through engagement after-all.
But that’s a subject unto itself!
So, what does it look and feel like to have balance where we enjoy the convenience, while also celebrating connection both physically and virtually (i.e. not having to choose one or the other)?
How does this balance work for you?
Any awkward AirPod moments? :)