DESEDO FILMS

Once upon a time, listening to music via headphones was considered a form of anti-social behavior, a way to shut out the world. So of course as a teenager, I reveled in the walls that I could create with my walkman. Yellow Sony Sports was my fave. As we moved to discman days, I rocked the chonky ear goggles. They signified hip-hop and served as a caul for my aloof attitude.

Now in the iPod era, headphones lost any stigma of standoffishness. We all share in the experience of using the same operating system, wearing a membership badge of tiny white earbuds. And when paired with social media, it can be an act of social inclusion – witness the Silent Raves.

And so as part of the ongoing experiment that is my life, this past month I opted to go sans headphones/iPod, to see if it altered the way I interacted with the world. Eye contact picked up more, and I’ll admit to a spike in furtive eavesdropping, but no great epiphanies to speak of.

And then last Thursday morn I put my headphones back on – and my world went a tad bizzaro. My sense of smell perked up. Lose one sense, and others come to the fore. And since I couldn’t aurally understand the actions and intent of those in my peripheral, I became wary of other people. I did not truly think they sought to cause harm, but could not shake the feeling of being on guard. Human as we may be, I felt almost like an animal negotiating the city space, instinct being the trump card to reason.