There have been lots of studies and stuff about how iPods, MP3 players, and earbuds are very much hurting our youth's hearing. In fact, in one anonymous study, 88% of people from ages 11-30 will be deaf within the next 3 minutes.
All that having been said, I am proposing that earbuds have been one of the greatest inventions ever. Hyperbole, but still. First off, they go in your ear. It's a personal thing. You have a perfectly good excuse to not lend them to someone and have them end up losing them. It's like "Dude, they kinda go inside my ear, you know?" Headphones in the traditional sense are not nearly as personal. Anyone can wear them.
Secondly, there's the fact that it really absorbs you into the music you're listening to. I've never worn like a really good pair of headphones like Beats by Dre or anything like that, but for the most part, for a reasonable price you can hear high-quality music and nothing but high-quality music. I walked around New York City yesterday, absorbing myself in the sounds of Billy Joel and Jay-Z, hardly hearing any background noise. It's truly a unique experience that headphones can't duplicate.
And the third reason why they are great is an offshoot of the second. Again, coming in use in a big city. Even if you don't have music playing you can ignore people around you with a perfectly good excuse that you are listening to music. If someone asks you for some money you can act like you didn't hear them. This may make me sound like a heartless asshole (it's been proposed before, don't worry) but the fact is that no one wants to be bothered by people asking for money, especially when a great deal of it is fraudulent anyways.
Keep making earbuds.
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