AirPods foster a different approach to detachment: Rather than mute the surrounding world altogether, they visually signal the wearer’s choice to perpetually relegate the immediate environment to the background. AirPods, then, express a more complete embrace of our simultaneous existence in physical and digital space, taking for granted that we’re frequently splitting our mental energy between the two. AirPods have externalities — penalizing non-wearers while confining the value they generate to their individual users. Once everyone has earbuds that are always in, physical proximity will no longer confer a social expectation of shared experience. subordinate our in-person sociality to the privatized infrastructure of networked communication Now, the kind of space that suffices instead is a pleasant backdrop for solitary device usage, a relatively blank slate that doesn’t compete with the phone’s foreground — conditions that places like Sweetgreen and Equinox supply. A dominant aural information platform could have a similar effect, fostering a world where we might as well leave our headphones on because there’s nothing around us worth hearing.
The distaste for telephony is especially acute among Millennials, who have come of age in a world of AIM and texting, then gchat and iMessage, but it’s hardly limited to young people. When asked , people with a distaste for phone calls argue that they are presumptuous and intrusive, especi
Andy Baio on Twitter: "I’m expecting a few days where I have to keep my eyes closed. I’d love your suggestions for audio escapism — podcasts, audiobooks, games, and other non-visual projects that don’t require intense concentration and are easy to
“I’m expecting a few days where I have to keep my eyes closed. I’d love your suggestions for audio escapism — podcasts, audiobooks, games, and other non-visual projects that don’t require intense concentration and are easy to lose yourself in.”