Earbud Zombies

I first noticed this phenomenon while parked in front of my son's dorm. Students filed out of the door and most were wearing earbuds or inserting them as they left. My second realization was on a Metra train. When I glanced at the upper deck, I observed that everyone was wearing earbuds.

The earbud is not new. I will regress, something I find myself doing in almost every post lately. This must be a sign. Anyway, my brother had a white, 7 transistor radio and it came with an earphone. Didn't need one for each ear since it was AM radio. We listened to WLS and WCFL. Dick Biondi was one of the DJ's, sometimes I think I still hear his voice on the radio, must be a lost radio wave out there somewhere. Another reason the earphone wasn't popular was because you couldn't annoy your parents with your music.

The earbud creates isolation for the wearer but it also limits identity. Lets examine this further. When people read newspapers and books on the train you could see which paper or what book they were reading. This gave you some insight into their being. Was it the Sun Times, Tribune or WSJ. Were they reading the sports section or finance. Was it a romance novel or a self help book. See what I mean. Now with the Kindle, iPhone ebook readers and earbuds you don't have a clue who this person is.

Wouldn't it be interesting if there were some device to allow you to see what people were listening to or reading? Imagine a cartoon bubble above everyone on the train. Tribune, Mozart, Sun Times, podcast, this blog post (highly unlikely).

This has inspired me. I'm off to the basement laboratory to create such a device. It could be worth millions. But wait, I wonder if the government already has something like this. Suddenly I'm not inspired anymore and I'll be packing tin foil on my next train trip.