As I travel around Ann Arbor, on the bus, walking across campus, or driving through crowded streets, I am amazed at the high percentage of people that are walking, riding their bikes, studying in libraries, sitting in restaurants or on the bus, all with headsets on. If they aren’t listening to an IPOD they are talking on their phones. Is this an Ann Arbor thing? Or are all people everywhere traveling, reading, sitting or eating while listening to someone or something in their ear?
Does no one just listen to their own thoughts anymore? Have we lost the ability to be silent? Have we no thoughts of our own to ponder? Do we always have to be connected to someone or something else? Are we afraid to be alone with ourselves?

I rarely have a reason to turn my cell phone on. Certainly not for the kinds of casual conversations I hear all around me on the streets. I don’t have any desire to listen to someone or something else during my commutes to and from classes. There is so much to consider just being on campus, I don’t need more information filtering into my already overloaded brain. That sounds like something from a 503 lecture I recently heard. There’s probably a study on this going on right now.

Regardless, I think people that can’t leave home without having something in their ear are missing an awful lot of interesting things. Some of which are other people just like them.