Dear Gretchen,
I have these awesome Beats headphones and I have to wear them everywhere. I hate when people try to talk to me when I obviously am not listening. Music is my life, man!
-All Plugged Up
Dear Plugged,
The other day, I was walking down the hall and I saw a student wearing a hoodie that seemed to be out of it, forlorn, lost, maybe even a bit sad. I spoke to him and said, "Are you okay?", but he just kept walking away. It was then that I realized that he wasn't sad or forlorn at all; he was just listening to his iPod with earbuds covered up by his hood. I had just wasted my emotions worrying about this kid who totally doesn't care that I cared.
Not only are headphones annoying to everyone else, but they totally remove you from living your life, letting you get to hang out with your friends, or experiencing all the actual fun stuff that is going on outside of that little head of yours. Right now you're in high school. The most important thing that you're learning in school isn't physics, computer science, or Algebra. To succeed in life, you're going to need social skills above everything else and there's no way you're going to be able to confidently approach people if you always plug up your ears. Next time you talk to a deaf person, ask him or her how easy it is to socialize with other non-deaf people. Speaking of hearing loss, check this out:
According to the Journal of Pediatrics, 12.5 percent of kids between the ages of 6 and 19 suffer from loss of hearing as a result of using ear phones/buds turned to a high volume.
Better start brushing up on the sign language. But seriously, if I see you or your friends standing in a group of people with your headphones on, I'm going to pull out some scissors and take care of business. It's for your own good. Enjoy your life, don't silence it!
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