Chandani Sharmaa’s escape from any difficult situation or people she wishes to avoid has been through the use of earphones

For Blossom Serrao, 22, an HR manager at Mentorboxx, headphones have been a blessing and a bane. Her job, she says, requires her to wear a headset every day for at least eight hours. “As HR professionals, we interact with over 100 candidates per day over the phone. In such scenarios, you need a pair of headphones because it’s comfortable, convenient and helps you catch important details in a conversation. Plus, they keep your hands free.” Serrao says being plugged in for long hours felt terrible at first. Her ears would ache due to the strain. “I had to be glued to my earphones all the time, which irritated my family, because I never paid attention when they called me for lunch or work. I was in my own world. It definitely made me a less social person than before.” Serrao’s  interaction with her family has steadily reduced. “I spend my entire day sitting in my room, with headphones on for zero disturbances.” Serrao is getting used to a new way of being alone together. “I feel incomplete without it,” she admits.

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The danger of losing a collective experience due to earbuds, and isolation that results thereof became a part of the public discourse back in the 1980s when  Professor Shuhei Hosokawa from the International Research Centre for Japanese Studies released an article in the Popular Music titled the Walkman Effect. Here, he refers to the way music listened to via headphones allows the user to gain more control over their environment. 

Reagan Caiero, 18, says the continuous use of earphones has changed him as a person. “I always someone who liked to talk, but now I prefer being alone and not being spoken to”

Chandini Sharmaa, marketing associate, says headphones have helped fill a void created due to the pandemic. “I would routinely go for night outs and parties before the lockdown. During the pandemic, there was so much time on hand and nothing to do. So, I’d end up listening to music or watching videos. Having headphones helped me forget what was going on around me.” And that habit of listening to music to while away time, has prevailed. Headphones have now become a tool for Sharmaa if she wants to avoid people she finds unpleasant or escape a difficult situation. “Headphones give us a level of plausible deniability when we don’t want to greet someone. In that same vein, being ignored by someone with headphones stings slightly less, because we can give them the benefit of the doubt.”

This also brings us to the question: How long is too long? According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the answer is one hour per day. This might seem unreasonable to some who have come to rely heavily on the device for pleasure and work alike.

Kishore Banan, audio engineer, and head of audio engineering at the True School of Music

Reagan Caeiro, 18, is an aspiring Chartered Accountant.  Caeiro has his earphones plugged in for 12 hours per day on an average. “It became a necessity due to online classes. After that I’d end up listening to music or watching shows online. So, sometimes I end up wearing it for 14 hours.” Caeiro is not oblivious to the change this has brought about in him. He was once talkative and gregarious, but not anymore. “Now, when people want to engage in casual conversation, I feel like cutting them off, and if someone is talking on the phone next to me, I tend to shush them or ask them to move away.  I’ve begun to enjoy not having anyone to talk to.” 

Coming from a field, where the use of earphones is a must, Kishore Banan, an audio engineer, and head of audio engineering at the True School of Music, says headphones work very differently from speakers as most headphones provide medium to good degree of isolation from extraneous noise. “This, coupled with sufficiently loud output, makes it almost impossible for the user to listen to anyone else. Moreover, headphones create an immersive listening experience compared to speakers; this may further push the listener into his or her own zone.  The user eventually ends up spending long hours in isolation oblivious to the people around.” 

Dr Shubhangi Parkar, former head of the Department of Psychiatry at KEM Hospital, adds to Banan’s prognosis, and says that when we use a earpiece, there’s a tendency to become preoccupied with the instrument that makes us cogntively isolated. “You become conditioned to that particular stimulus. As a result, your overall response to interacting with people begins to diminish. The music you’re listening to may be fantastic, but wearing that earpiece for an extended period of time is like narrowing down  your psychological movement.” The social consequences of antisocial technology can cut us off from the chance interactions that build healthy human relationships. She ends with a warning, “The more prolonged this isolation is, the harder it is to wean off.”