Posted on 06/06/2019 6:32:37 AM PDT by Red Badger
Small, snug, and unyoked from laptop or phone, AirPods are easy to wear for hours at a time, without a second thought.
This, BuzzFeed News recently declared, is “Making Things Awkward for Everyone Else.” All-day AirPod wear can make social interactions clumsy and uncomfortable: Has the AirPod wearer hung up the call or turned off their music? The person on the other end of the interaction doesn’t know. Particularly in situations that require some sustained face-to-face communication—ordering coffee or crossing paths with a co-worker—wearing AirPods and ignoring others, intentionally or not, can be a jerk move, BuzzFeed News concludes.
But something’s missing in the lamentation over the Apple buds and their erosion of social norms. There’s actually a very good reason for wearing AirPods all the time, even at the risk of offending someone: to safely ignore street harassers.
The currency of street harassers is attention—they want it, and they act as if they’re entitled to it. Leaving your AirPods in while ordering at Starbucks is rude, because the barista at the counter is owed some common courtesy. Wearing them on your commute to pretend you didn’t hear that nasty comment is not, because the harasser isn’t owed anything at all.
I wear my Apple EarPods, the classic kind with cords, for this purpose. A familiar gut feeling, the kind sharpened over years of simply existing as a woman in the world, told me I probably wasn’t alone. When I put the question to Twitter, asking users whether they wear their AirPods—or any headphones—in part because they want to tune out unsolicited attention from strangers, I heard from nearly 100 people, mostly women. Twitter is not a representative sample of the United States, let alone people who wear headphones, but a clear theme sounded through the responses: Wearing headphones made
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
You live in Kentucky, IIRC. Unless there’s some issue I’m unaware of (and I’m not asking), you could have an actual nice .45 in a holster.
Yeah, but I started that habit when I lived in Seattle and worked downtown. That place, at the time (I moved away 8 years ago) was a Jekyl and Hyde area. At around 6 p.m. the dogs all went home and the coyotes came in.
I try to always be brutally honest. If whiny people think I’m an @sshole that’s their problem and not mine.
From someone who doesn’t even have or want a cell phone, what are Air Pods?
Though I’m a guy, I wear mine frequently for similar reasons. Aside from being able to listen to music, podcasts, audiobooks, etc I also just don’t want to be bothered by solicitors, panhandlers, overly chatty strangers, etc.
I do pay a bit of extra attention to my surroundings knowing I can’t hear with them in. Also, other than when I’m at work I’m always armed so that enhances my sense of security. The shield against being bothered is nice but you do need to take extra security considerations into account if you’re going to wear them when out and about.
Good point.
Homeless beggars tend to leave you alone too.
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