Most households experience their own small domestic dramas: minor disagreements over dishwasher loading or recycling. In our home, the issue revolves around headphones. My partner loves his noise-cancelling earphones, and while I appreciate being spared his political podcasts, the only way to grab his attention when he’s wearing them is to stand directly in front of him and perform a little talk-to-me pantomime.
At home, this is a minor issue. However, headphones have now infiltrated the office: instead of the lively buzz of work conversations and banter, there is an eerily muted soundscape filled with the tapping of keyboards, the metallic fizz of headphone overspill, and disjointed snippets of video calls.
It’s tempting to attribute this shift in office dynamics to the pandemic. Working from home certainly made us feel a bit feral, and returning to in-person interactions with colleagues we previously knew only as mere constellations of pixels has been somewhat shocking.
There are many convincing justifications for retreating into the quasi-solitude of headphones. Most revolve around the mantra of “concentration”: the need to block out the noise of an open-plan office to focus, or the supposed productivity benefits of listening to music.
The habits of solipsistic silence have crept up on us over the centuries, sometimes slowly, at other times alarmingly fast. Historians debate the moment when reading aloud as a social activity transitioned to silent reading; St. Augustine found the silent reading habit of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, unusual enough to mention in his Confessions. As recently as the 20th century, solitary reading was viewed in some circles as anti-social: the bookish heroines in Molly Keane’s novels are perpetually chased outdoors by their horsey, reading-averse mothers.
Concerns about the anti-social effects of headphones are not new. The launch of the iPod in 2001 led Liz Wyse, from the etiquette guide Debrett’s, to suggest that it was impolite to keep earbuds in while speaking to a shop assistant. Two decades later, she finds herself reiterating the same advice regarding interactions with work colleagues.
In reality, the argument that using earphones enhances concentration is unfounded and has been thoroughly debunked by academic research. Headphones in the workplace serve as a comfort blanket, insulating individuals from the discomfort of interacting with others. However, any productivity gains from this sonic comfort are offset by significant drawbacks—not just the headphone-related hearing loss that the British Safety Council warned about earlier this year.
The most enjoyable years of my working life were spent in an open-plan newspaper office where no one wore headphones. Instead, we engaged in conversations—primarily about work, but also about life, the universe, and everything in between. Amid the jokes, ideas, gossip, and occasional heated debates, friendships blossomed alongside productivity. Those relationships, formed in the office, have stood the test of time through both good and bad moments. How much sadder and less interesting our lives would have been if we had remained isolated in our own headphone-cloistered worlds, missing out on the conversations that continue to enrich our lives today. Headphone Dependency is slowly killing the Office buzz