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Completely Different Lives

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
For whatever reason, I was pointed to the following article by my browser: What Happens When You Always Wear Headphones. It talks about what happens when you have earbuds in all the time.

My biggest take away was the thought of how *completely* different this person's experience of life is from mine. I almost never have earbuds in. In fact, I can't remember the last time I did.

There are other ways I know I am *very* different than many: I do math every day, after all. But somehow the idea of having earbuds in *all* the time is so foreign to me I have trouble imagining living like that.

This thread is to bring up examples where you realize someone else lives their life in a way that is *completely* different than how you do. Don't criticize the other lifestyle: just note the differences and revel in the diversity of human beings.
 

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
I work at a university, so I see this fairly often in the students who wander the campus. I see them not paying attention to anything around themselves, whether it is other human persons or the wonderful diversity of non-human persons we share this planet with. I suppose it bothers me because connecting to what is local is a focus of my tradition, but I guess these kids are connecting to something in their own way through their pocket computers and the like.
 

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
I used to have a walkman in my younger days and was always listening to tunes while walking around. At some point, I just stopped doing that. But it sometimes felt like I was in some other place and not necessarily aware of my surroundings.
 

A Vestigial Mote

Well-Known Member
I remember the culture shock when I was in college and walked into a friend of a friend's bedroom and the floor was literally covered in a layer of trash. Discarded this and that, papers everywhere, wrappers and foam food containers. This was apparently the day-to-day state of the room. I mean... my room at that age was no picture of perfection, of course... but this was something else entirely.

There are also plenty of moments where, in talking to someone, they say something off-hand, without even thinking of it, that seems like it must be terribly normal for them, but that hits me as extremely different than my own understanding or activity in the area being discussed. Some examples, someone suddenly talks about drinking at all hours as if it is just another thing to mention in pleasant conversation, or lets on that they are more than a bit racist and, for whatever reason, seem to figure you're probably simply in agreement with them.
 

dybmh

דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
It talks about what happens when you have earbuds in all the time.
Isn't this something that is mentioned in Bradbury's Farenheit 451?

Also slightly off topic, but, have u seen the movie "Primer". If u haven't, u should. I always remember that movie when I meet people who wear their earbuds constantly. Also, it makes wonder about the world they're living in.
 
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Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
I'm always a bit surprised when visiting people who live in ordinary homes in
ordinary neighborhoods. What do they do? They have no shop, no engines,
no forklifts, trucks or trailers to move things, no acreage to landscape, no
buildings needing repairs....just their house & furnishings with a tiny yard.
I try to imagine living that way. It seems so empty.
 

Bob the Unbeliever

Well-Known Member
Reading books. I'm constantly reading books; it's almost become an obsession, one that I started way back in the very early 1960s when I first learned that symbolic marks in a row on a page, could convey ideas and meaning.

Books took me away from reality, substituting one of my own choosing. Sometimes, the substitute reality was lively. Sometimes, puzzling. Sometimes, very dark. But always seemingly preferred to what I have now come to call "meat space".

I still devour books at an alarming rate-- if you consider that the ones I now read, are independently published eBooks at roughly $3-$5 a pop... and I have over a thousand at last count, all purchased in the last few years since I've switched from dead tree editions to pixelated versions.

I think I could cope with losing mobility, or hearing-- so long as I could continue to read.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
For whatever reason, I was pointed to the following article by my browser: What Happens When You Always Wear Headphones. It talks about what happens when you have earbuds in all the time.

My biggest take away was the thought of how *completely* different this person's experience of life is from mine. I almost never have earbuds in. In fact, I can't remember the last time I did.

There are other ways I know I am *very* different than many: I do math every day, after all. But somehow the idea of having earbuds in *all* the time is so foreign to me I have trouble imagining living like that.

This thread is to bring up examples where you realize someone else lives their life in a way that is *completely* different than how you do. Don't criticize the other lifestyle: just note the differences and revel in the diversity of human beings.

My wife falls asleep watching FOX news and or the grandkids will want to watch their shows while I'm trying to sleep. It used to bother me. I just learned to tune it all out.

I wonder if as we use more and more technology we'll lose some of the things that our brain is capable of.
 

Audie

Veteran Member
I used to have a walkman in my younger days and was always listening to tunes while walking around. At some point, I just stopped doing that. But it sometimes felt like I was in some other place and not necessarily aware of my surroundings.

I would not dream of going out with earbuds, or
anything to interfere with my hearing!!

One time I was in Taipei, walking on the sidewalk.
Taipei is a noisy place, but I heard something behind
me. JUST in time to dodge a car. If I had not heard
it I'd have been dead or seriously injured. Only reason
I heard it is the sidewalks there have these tiles that
often come loose, so they rattle. But honestly, cars on
the sidewalk?

ANYway, here in NYC you also have to be alert.

Dr. Darwin can treat those who are not.
 
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Audie

Veteran Member
I'm always a bit surprised when visiting people who live in ordinary homes in
ordinary neighborhoods. What do they do? They have no shop, no engines,
no forklifts, trucks or trailers to move things, no acreage to landscape, no
buildings needing repairs....just their house & furnishings with a tiny yard.
I try to imagine living that way. It seems so empty.


You cannot get your forklift into a NYC flat.
Do not even try.
 

anna.

but mostly it's the same
This thread is to bring up examples where you realize someone else lives their life in a way that is *completely* different than how you do. Don't criticize the other lifestyle: just note the differences and revel in the diversity of human beings.

Selfie life.

I simply cannot understand why it seems necessary for every experience to be photobombed by the person experiencing it, as if the experience exists merely as backdrop to the self-portrait. Adding the inevitable corollary to that: filters. For those who use filters as a crutch, I wonder if they've lost the essence of who they truly are. I once read an instagrammer explaining how each photo she uploaded took at least 20 minutes to tweak, and that was just for her - if the image was of a group of friends it took longer, because she felt an obligation to make each of them look their best. (!) Boggles my mind...
 

Enoch07

It's all a sick freaking joke.
Premium Member
Don't criticize the other lifestyle: just note the differences and revel in the diversity of human beings.

Criticism is fair especially if a danger is present. Walking around most of the time with earbuds in is dangerous for that person.

An example.

When I ride my motorcycle I like to wear half helmets (brain huckets) or no helmet at all. Why? Because I like to have 100% of my senses available to me while I ride. A full helmet covers my ears, I can barely hear anything. It also restricts my peripheal vision, and breathing.

Earbuds just make you an easy target. Easy to sneak up on and take advantage of. Why anyone would purposely dull their senses in this extremely dangerous world is beyond me.
 
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