Headphones Equal Isolation

**Headphones Equal Isolation** is an archive of the original Trooper Tales page of the same name from TV Tropes.

## Archive

Most of my knowledge and/or black-mail material comes from peoplethinking this is true...for me it ain't.

I (JohnnyBGoode) literally see people's mouths moving and hearnothing.

This troper (Cameoflage) always found this assumption somewhatbaffling, since she could still hear noises and people talking to herwith headphones on (even with music playing, although that wasdistracting when she tried to actually *listen*; headphones with nomusic just muffled the sound a bit). She sometimes pauses her iPod butleaves the headphones in if she wants to eavesdrop in plain sight.

* This troper does the same thing. However, she also thinks that ifyou can see someone with headphones on, you shouldn't try to talk tothem.\*\*\* It's mostly my parents wanting to tell me something while I'mlistening to music. More often, I just get flak for continuing to beable to hear (and thus complaining about) my sister being annoyingwhile I have the headphones on.\*\*\*\* This troper often wears headphones while on break at work. Mycoworkers are still amazed whenever I happen to make a comment or twoabout the conversation they're having.

* I try this a lot, but it's subverted because everyone will alwaystap me to try to get my attention, and you can't really ignore themafter that. Also, this sometimes works for my father, who has themusic playing so loud that other people can hear it.

This troper has this *along* with locking his room. (spoiler: Iwant to get out, though. O\_O)

* Ditto (spoiler: on both counts)
	+ This troper makes fun of you on that one, i have headphones pluggedto my music, door shut, tv running,and im tv tropeing/playing videogames. spoiler: and i love it in here
		- Oh, same (KatanaCat) here - sitting in my room troping,reading fanfic, writing stories (either original fiction or moreFanFic), listening to music, playing videogames, watching shows Idownloaded, or any combination of the above is what I do for most ofthe day. I don't even bother with headphones most of the time I'm inthere, letting everybody who walks by the door to my room know I'mstill up via the music/voices coming from within.

This troper's headphones really do give isolation. Heavy metalturned up so loud virtually nothing else can be heard over it. This isintentional, as not drowning out the world leads to a confusing andirritating mass of disorderly noise. This is well worth the dulledhearing and lack of ability to distinguish voices.

* Played straight for the most part with me (DrakeDarkhunter). Due to my long hair people often can't tell when I'm wearing earbuds and considering that I love listening to heavy metal at deafening levels like the troper above I honestly can't hear a thing besides my music.Infact I suspect my earbuds might just be noise cancelling. Of coursedespite this people still love to try and talk to me or get myattention when I'm listening to music. (which is a lot of the time.)
	+ To the OP: You are going to go deaf at a very young age.

* This troper (SliferAlpha) likes to play with this trope quite a bit. Even though he is almost constantly wearing his huge pair ofSony headphones from the eighties, he always leaves the volume lowenough on them to hear people whispering behind him. In fact, he even'encourages' people to believe this is the case with him, as he alsooften wears the headphones around his neck, with the volume maxed.It's always funny to see the expression on someone's face when he turns around and addresses someone's question spoken in a nigh-whisper.
* I agree.

* This troper (MythSage) likes to be alone. People always talk tohim. Solution? Put on a pair of headphones and blast some Iron Maidenat deafening volumes. Of course, the fact that he headbangs and singsalong to the music probably has some small part in this equation.

I am guilty of this for many reasons, including the fact that I'd gocrazy without 'em. Many people, mostly little kids, still try to talkto me while I wear them, however.

This troper who is too lazy to register isolates himself just finewithout headphones. He also has been known to wear headphones attachedto nothing to give the impression of listening to music, with hilarious results.

This troper listens to music a lot, but will only really listen toher music completely if she really wants to hear the song that'splaying or if she's trying to concentrate on something (includingignoring certain people). Unfortunately, the people she tries toignore either don't get the hint or ignore the hint and bother hernonetheless (her father is guilty of the latter).

DaNuke does it all the time in the bus. *Especially*when someone is begging for gold or busking inside (there's goodpeople out there, but then you have Main/SturgeonsLaw...). Example:someone gets on the bus and start playing the recorder flute. Da\_Nuke*absolutely loathes* the recorder flute, so his immediate reactionis to pull his Main/MP3 player and blast Main/HotBlooded Viking metalto isolate himself.

This troper (YoAdrian) does this on purpose. For some reason, Iseem to look like I will be a good listener and will actually careabout some random stranger's lumbago and yappy dog. Headphones help mehear less of that. Also, ear buds + long hair = easy way to getthrough a 4 hour lecture class. Unfortunately, it does not work on theclingy girl who sits next to me, who thinks I am her best friend anddoes not get the hints that I want her to shut up.

* [Kill her. That'sall you'll have to do. She's a risk. And get the priest as well.]\* This troper does it every time she goes out alone, half because shereally does just want to listen to music, half to deter streetsalesmen from talking to her.

* This troper (Regiment), for some reason, won't talk while listening to music with headphones. He also has, more than once,turned *off* the headphones and eavesdropped on people.

This troper, when taking the bus home and back from middle school,had a neighbor that constantly wore headphones. Not that he didn't tryto start conversation, though. Also, far more recently, his(different, male) friend and the friend's girlfriend were sitting across a table from him before school, and were just sort of messingwith each other/fake-arguing. This troper was headphoned, so, ofcourse, the friend did not think he could hear him, and promptly said,"Matt, BITE her!"...to which he responded that that was an odd thing to ask another guy to do to one's girlfriend.

Subverted with this troper, who often wears headphones with no musicplaying so he can eavesdrop on other people.

This troper skirts the border between constantly invoking this tropeand constantly subverting it. He can hear through his set ofheadphones, which for personal reasons covers his entire ear, comparedto everyone else in the school wearing the ones you stick in the ears(um... earbuds?). If really required, his pair comes with a highlyvisible volume control where the lines meet, so he could just lowerthe volume if he can't reach his Shuffle. But most of the time, peopletalk to him *anyway*, and usually, he can't tell what was being saidanyway, so he often has to take them off to listen (and even then, oftasks for repeats). When he *can* hear what's going on with IOSYSmusic blaring in the speakers, he often makes pithy comments relatedto the topic. If it was something degrading, he comments, "I can stillhear through these, you know. Care to not repeat that [insert commentused] in the future?"

This troper's sister often wears headphones at the computer, and inthis state one can pretty easily talk about her behind her back...then again, she's enough of a CloudCuckooLander that she might remainisolated without the headphones or the music.

Never worked for me. My headphones SUCK.

Slightly odd case for me. People don't tend to talk to me when I'm wearing headphones, but sometimes I think I hear someone saying myname or talking to me, take the headphones off and ask the person torepeat themselves and they look at me confused because they haven't said anything.

* Happens to me as well. I eventually tracked it down to a particularpart of the Bayonetta soundtrack which sounds exactly, and I meanexactly, like someone yelling my name from upstairs.
* Happens to me all the time. The background to one of my songssounds JUST like my dog barking. Oftentimes I will forget this, takeoff the headphones, and scream at the dog to shut up. This usuallyelicits strange looks from my family.
* Funny story in my case: I constantly wear headphones while on thecomputer. Sometimes, my friend, aware of this, will make jokeconversation knowing full well I can't hear him and/or am not payingattention. One time, I heard a snippet of what he was saying and askedwhat he said.--> **Friend:** I said "I'm having your baby."--> **Me:** Oh, that reminds me, Whose Line Is It Anyway on tonight.
* The only thing that would've made it even creepier is if an episodeof *WhoseLineIsItAnyway* featuring Colin Mochrie using that *very*quote had been on. spoiler:It wasn't.

Subverted in that people will not leave SovietKitty this troperalone, even when wearing headphones AND playing a video game, madeeven more annoying by the fact that she has almost no interest in socializing.

I don't think people understand that when the headphones are on, youdon't want to listen to whatever conversation people are having. Thistroper constantly get yelled at because she isn't paying attention towhatever hr parents are saying.

This troper played it straight to be left alone and undisturbedgoing and coming from school and in the breaks at it. She used to useher old headphones who are more notable than the modern ones. Stillit's not really useful with morons, so she had start to take aroundher old cellphone, who is an old model of Nokia so that she could fakebeing in the middle of a phone conversation without getting busted by the display.

This troper (CaptHayfever) sticks to open-air headphones to playwith this trope. Sometimes I have them on even after my music or[=YouTube=] video or whatever has finished, & people think I'm stillnot listening. (This sometimes leads to hilariously failed sneakattacks on my friend's part.) Also, people underestimate exactly howpowerful my hearing is (& it is) even with music on. (Of course,sometimes I'm listening to something loud & really can't hear whatpeople say, but then if they think it's important, they'll get myattention visually, & if I think it's important, I'll ask for repetition.)

This troper bought huge headphones specifically so people would notice them and leave her alone when she's listening to music. She's found that it is an excellent way to listen in on conversations.

In Ear headphones with Dragonforce or Iron Maiden turned UpToEleven.effectively sounds like backing music for life.

This Troper was in a resturaunt one night with her family. She waslistening to her iPod, when her father 'said' something to her (hereally mouthed it). I paused the song and said "huh?" He mouthed thephrase again. I said, "Dad, could you please say that out loud? I'm nogood with reading lips." He apparently thought I would keep turningdown the volume until it was off and laugh at me; but I usually getpast those kinds of tricks fairly easily.

This troper subverts this entirely. I have a regular pair of Ipodheadphones, complete with an Ipod in my jacket pocket (with the sametype of headphone plugged in). However, those headphones are taped tothe inside of my jacket, and the real headphones are of a sound amplification device.

This trope is the reason why [[Template:Orihime This Troper]] doesn't useher mp3 player when at home. Her younger sister, though, is a straight example.

This trope is the reason why this Tropette (LittleMai) CAN'Tuse her mp3 player when eating at home. Her parents just hate it, evenwhen she turns the volume down to the lowest one, and can heareverything perfectly. However, when she wants to hear music in loudvolumes... Good luck trying to catch her attention. Sometimes, evenhandwaves *inches away from her face* weren't enough.

This troper (chitoryu12) will likely fall victim to this tropewhen he has an iPod, as he already does it when playing music on hisWindows Media Player while Internet surfing or playing games thatdon't have music he likes. It's not uncommon for him to start singing,either, so many times people will call for him several times, thenfinally walk in on him on whatever webpage he's on, blasting [=~MotleyCrue~=] or Boston and singing along (fortunately, he has a nice singing voice).

This troper (EddieVanHelsing) carries two sets of headphones withhim. One is a small folding pair, which he wears when he is willing tobe interrupted. The other is a set of studio-style headphones, whichhe wears when he is unwilling to tolerate interruptions from anybodybut his wife (and she'd better have a damned good reason).

When this troper (PictureFrame) was in high school, she wasstaying in a hotel with three of her friends. They were supposed to besleeping, but after one of her friends put on headphones, the othertwo started to make a list of all the inappropriate things the firstone was 'thinking' about a particularly creepy guy with a crush onher. It took her a while to figure it out.

This is the reason why [[Template:Orihime this troper]]'s younger sisteris banned from using her MP3 player at home.

This troper tried this out today. She had one personlean into her line of sight and wave frantically to get her attention and say hi. Everybody else left her alone. And while most noises weremuffled, the noise cancelling headphones blocked out a lot of the awful ambient noise, which made for a blessedly peaceful, extremely relaxing lunch break.

Played absolutely straight with this troper. Even at half volume, myMP3 player allows me to effectively block out most exterior noise. I can also use it as an excuse to ignore people I don't want to talk to when I can still hear them.

Invoked like crazy with this Troper, who bought a massive pair ofheadphones just so that people wouldn't bother her. Most of the timethere's no music playing and she can hear everything around just fine,thank you. Also subverted- when she listens to music sometimes, sheuses the other pair of in-ear earphones which are pretty muchinvisible thanks to a combination of shoulder length hair + jacket. Inthis case, she can't hear anything else, so while it looks like she's listening attentively to whoever's talking... she's not.

Averted by this troper, who deliberately only ever puts one earbudin to make sure he CAN hear what people say.\* Often the case with this troper (Regiment), although he has been known to surreptitiously turn off the music to eavesdrop.

This troper tries to do this with earbuds. Pressing her fingertipsto the 'buds and bobbing her head probably has something to with it.She will continue this until she gets massive headphones as she wants.

Played totally straight with this troper. Hooray for noise-cancelingearbuds! (Best. Belated Christmas present. EVER.)

I (Acacia) can't go anywhere without my iPod. My Asperger'swill *HeroicBSOD get me* if I can't drown out all those people in the background.

* Your fellow Aspie Troper]] sympatizes. Ican handle people talking, but if they're too loud it's annoying.Appearantly, in middle school, the headphones I wore also made me lookkind of silly.

I used to find big clamshell headphones were a good means of avoiding being accosted by clipboard people in UK town centres.Unfortunately, the headphones don't fit under my Nice Hat these days,so I just go with ignoring the annoying sods...

This Troper (NeoSilverThorn) tends to use earbuds, but has the bighonkin' "World Ends With You" style headphones for use with his laptop. Played straight on both counts, since hard of hearing means the music gets cranked.

This troper knew many, many people in high school who'd get small,discreet earbuds so they could ignore the teachers without being reprimanded, only to play the music so loud that they were caught every time.

* Incidentally, this troper typically wears her headphones while ather computer, but dislikes loud sounds of any nature due to rathersensitive hearing, so her music is played at a fairly low volume.(She's asked herself more than once how people don't feel incrediblepain from blasting music straight into their ears.

This troper tries this. Her mother does not seem to realize thatsometimes this troper actually wants to hear her music, and will speakto her anyway. This usually ends in somebody getting snapped at.\*\* This troper gets the same problem with his parents. Of course, halfthe time, the parent's just talking to themselves, and it ends up withhim being snapped back at.

This troper got a pair of headphones from his (musician) brother which could essentially block out all noise up to around 60-80decibels, *without* any music being on.

This troper's parents ban her from using headphones or earbuds athome because of this, although she can hear what's going on around herperfectly when wearing them. (Probably because this troper listens tomusic in a moderate volume to protect her ears).

I have a tendency to yell out "WHAT?!" when listening to things onmy headphones. I swear I just hear gibberish.\* This troper has been smacked upside the head more than once by hismother when she attempts to initiate conversation with me when I have the @#!\*% things in.

This troper is fond of this. Even on the (very, very rare; my iPodis used at least five hours a day) occasions she doesn't have music on, she sticks her headphones in whenever she enters a store. Nobody ever asks her if she needs assistance, which means she doesn't have torisk putting her foot in her mouth when refusing. She gets nervous when talking to strangers... she \*can\* hear through them, though,people just think she can't. People always wonder why her friends aren't offended when she doesn't bother pausing/taking them out during conversations.

This troper loves it. Back in 2008 during the worst political season of his life (I live in a Swing state, by the way!) and people would always solicit my attention to say bad things about the opponent or fill out a survey....he switched to headphones. Almost instantly, the surveyors around his college campus started to **leave him alone**. Even though he could still hear some people's music from their earbuds through them (and the babbling), he would stop being solicited to listen to the ualuealuealuelauale about Palin or Obama or McCain beingblammered to other victims...but importantly....**the surveyors are *GONE!***.

This troper honestly cannot go anywhere without his iPod to listen to. Yet people still assume I want to talk. Thanks to decreased hearing, I usually have to stop the music and re-hear them. Twice.That and my @#!\*% iPod SEES THE @#!\*% FUTURE. NO @#!\*% . Arguing witha friend, Teenagers by MCR comes on. Last day of school, hit by a water balloon? I Get Wet by Andrew W.K. Reading that Crowning Moment of Heart-warming thread? Helena by MCR. Those are only a few. More like a case of Headphones Equal Clairvoyance, but...

This troper wears her headphones constantly when not in school. 80%of the time, there is no music playing. The headphones are to keeppeople from talking to me... and because it feels weird to not have them on.

If you see this troper wearing headphones, there's a good chancehe's not listening to anything. I just wear them when I have my iPod because I don't want to bother putting them in my pocket, where theyget all tangled. And yes, I occasionally use this for eavesdropping.

Headphones have saved me (Eccentric) from quite a fewundesirable situations. Best example: I avoided being forced to watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua by listening to The Beatles and reading Kafka's short stories.

This Troper (Miso) likes to travel solely because it means shecan avoid unpleasant conversation by letting OzzyOsbourne blast holes in her eardrums.

This Troper (LoneCentrist) relies on public transportation,and has avoided many a conversation with a crazy person because he's blasting some music (or sometimes, just the headphones and no music just to avoid said crazy people). He's not even a loner... bus people just are that weird sometimes.

This troper appreciates using headphones to shut people out,especially family members shouting about something she's not involved in. Music is her happy place!

* Aversion!->Amperschwa: THESE HEADPHONES, THEY DO NOTHING.

This is the only way this troper can escape for a while. Putting onher favorate songs at a rather high volume adds to the isolation.

Played relatively straight by this unregistered troper, except when his relatives attempt to talk to him... they never know when to leave a guy alone for a few minutes, despite his donning a humongoid pair of circumaural headphones]].

The reason This Troper ((Ryumaru) bought a large pair ofSkullcandy headphones. It worked (for the most part), until they broke....

This troper has a massive pair of headphones that she wears all the time when at a computer, even when not listening to anything. They're noise-canceling. Her parents still try to tell her important things and get mad when she doesn't remember them. They don't get the whole"if I have headphones on I am not paying attention to you and probably can't even hear you" thing.

Played straight with this Troper (BlossomMorphine), who has her headhphones on for half the day. Irritating to the rest of her family,who get upset that she can't hear what they have to say, and now only bother her for something 'important'. Which was what she was going for.

This Troper ALMOST ALWAYS had headphones on whilst in a moving vehicle. Her sister is SERIOUSLY Tone Deaf\* This Troper's headphones are designed to block out the world with music. Annoyingly, people still try to talk to her when she has them on.

Totally invoked by This Troper ((Fishsicles)), not as successfully as he would like.

Invoked and subverted by This Troper, who was ignored or avoided by everyone outside of a small group of friends. Getting gifted with anMP3 player and Persona3 led to trying out the 'protagonist with headphones' look and wearing them anywhere it could be gotten awaywith. People inexplicably became much more friendly and where able to identify me as 'Headphone Guy', although the change didn't stick.

This troper (currently at the library) put on headphones for aYoutube video. After the video was done, he realized that the guy sitting across from him had taken the opportunity to begin discussing women with panty fetishes.

Once while I was in the dorm's laundry room, I was listening to a tape for Spanish class. A guy walked in and yelled at me, "THOSE THINGS'LL FRY YOUR BRAIN!" I answered with a loud "WHAT?" He repeated his statement. I took the headphones off, "WHAT?" He repeated his statement again, when I had the headphones off. And I still said,"WHAT?" He saw the ridiculousness of it when I said, "I DON'T KNOW ABOUT FRYING MY BRAIN, BUT THEY'RE DOING A NUMBER ON MY EARS!"\\The trope never worked for me, since I have very good hearing. Evenwith supposedly "noise reducing" headphones, I can hear what's goingon. I tried on some Gun Mufflers (heavy duty ear protection) once, andI found I could STILL understand someone speaking in a normal voice!Those were uncomfortable, but still the most effective world-silencersI've ever gotten ahold of...

Happens all the time for this troper. Also, his parents complainthat headphones will damage his ear, however he has near-perfecthearing.

This troper has an awesome pair of noise reducing Skullcandy earbuds. The fact that they're a visible-from-space shade of hot pinkdoesn't hurt in deterring conversation-seekers, either.

This troper sometimes likes to use the portable music player as akind of escapism, not depending on other people to have fun andpreventing himself from feeling lonely/depressed. He can still hearthe outside world while wearing headphones - except if he's pushing them against his ears, or puts the volume really high.

This Troper does this all the time, and has rather large headphones (no discreet listening for him). Yet many willstill talk to him when he's got them on... They should realize by now that "on" means "leave me alone" and "around my neck" means "I'lllisten." \*shrug\*

This trope actually saved this troper from possiblebullying/harassment one time in Japan (I was an exchange student, sonaturally I stood out anyway). I was on my way home with my friend onthe train when we realized we were standing near some punk guys from

my school. My friend told me to quickly put my headphones in. Theymight've noticed us, but nothing ever happened and they didn't botherus. Phew!

This troper feels naked without her headphones and is a sociopath,but subverts this as she doesn't wear any outside.

This troper (BattleHamster) wears headphones so as to discourage conversation, but usually listens to music quietly enough that she can still hear people talking.

(Lilacheart: This Troper is always listening to music whenshe's outside, and she usually WANTS people to leave her alone(talking to her while she's in the middle of a song can @#!\*% heroff), but they usually don't.

Mostly played straight with this troper. He has absolutely massiveheadphones, but they leak sound like @#!\*% . As a result, I can stillunderstand conversations even if they can distinguish the lyrics ofthe song I'm listening to. Most people forget that and try tohold...compromising conversations around me. This can range from humorous to awkward.

Why does nobody leave me alone when I have headphones in? I swear,more people try to talk to me then that when I don't have them on.

This troper, to the extreme, both symbolically and literally-- ithelps that he has a huge personal space bubble that nobody respectsand has serious problems with dealing with other people, so he usesthem to at least put his mind away. He feels absolutely naked withoutthem, and nearly had a breakdown at the concept of having to gowithout his music for a day. Yeah, he's Shrinking Violet not a people person.

Xaris: This Troper]] loves his noise-canceling headphones because they sound a lot better than plain ear buds, but has found them even more useful for not having to deal with people constantly bugging him for no good reason. Doesn't stop his mother from getting irritated when he can't hear her.

Subverted in that, while this troper does try and use this, her parents know she has extremely sensitive hearing and unless they can hear the music as well, she can hear anything they're saying (a bit muffled depending on the distance). However, having them on helps her block out other noise when she's trying to focus on anything from school work to a video game (she thinks this is because it gets her something specific to block out rather than a mass of noise), so she plays it straight as well if they're combined with something else.

Subverted with this troper, as he thought that a classmate of hiscouldn't hear him, until he realized that he had been messing up hisname for over a year. The guy never realized that the troper wastrying to get his attention.

This Trooper would listen to music on the bus to drown out the otherstudents. Sometimes, if I really liked the song, I'd wear it to mylocker, but to be polite, I'd pull one ear-bud out so if someonewanted they could get my attention. One of my teachers informed me Ihad gone to the dark side, probably based on this trope.

this troper, and his trusty sansa fuze (ipods are out of this 12year old's price range) i can have my chemical romance going up to 11can still hear his parents, anyone else talking. it never reavals much but i still take on earphone off to listen so they dont start talkingto me like i really care what my parents think.

The only time you'll see (Deadbeatloser22) This Troper with his iPod out is in school lessons. For some reason it's possible to ignore being whacked on the head with a soccer ball (twice) with them in.

This troper discovered that headphones +[Gnaural] (a program that generates brainwave synchronization sounds) = nearly-perfect isolation. Worksbetter than music in his experience.

This troper wears earphones instead of headphones. They work just aswell, and people occassionally start talking to her because they don'tnotice the earphones. Just smile and nod along...

This troper never gets into a moving vehicle without some form ofmusic listening-ery. Her mother knows this for a fact. And continuesto spark conversations the INSTANT she presses play. She will listento her and then wait for a minute or two after she has stopped talkingbefore starting up her songs again... just to have her mother continueher previous thought the instant she does so.

This tropette gets like this, and then her parents scream at herbecause she can't hear them yelling that the food is ready. It's quitestupid really. Just come up to me and get my attention rather thentrying to scream of the music and starting a fight. Just...

Subverted for this troper. He wears headphones, but they're brokenand only as a fashion choice. They're never attached to anything andhe talks to people first to make sure that they realize I'm listeningto them.

This Tropes parents seem not to understand this trope, while I'mclealy lisening to music and can't hear anything else, they still tryto scream at me for me to take out the trash, or my dinner is ready,ect.

This troper was wearing head phones in a libary during finals week.The head phones being really good blocked out all outside noise. Whena friend said something to me I saw his lips move and quietly replied"What?" before taking off the head phones. Because I couldn't hearanything else, I had no idea on how loudly I was speaking and it turnsout that I practically yelled and everyone in the library heard me andwas suddenly looking at me. Embarrassment soon followed.

This troper finds that whenever she settles down in the social areaof her building with her laptop, she can do whatever for hours withoutbeing spoken to, but as soon as she decides she wants to listen tomusic and gets her earbuds out, people will interrupt her every twominutes.

This troper loves music and listens to it as much as possible anduses earbuds most of the time because they are more practical for her.Whenever I'm wearing them in public, people tend to leave me alone,except when they want to ask directions or something, which I caneasily answer because my music is never turned up very loud (I can'tunderstand people, including my younger brother, who turn up thevolume to a point that just **got** to hurt). I also tend to listento music in the car and listen to music *a lot* whenever I'm at homeor on my laptop, wearing either a headphone or earbuds.

My dad and brother seem to understand and leave me alone unless they really needto disturb me for something. My mother,on the other hand, **still**tries to start a conversation whenever we're driving somewhere, evenwhen I'm clearly listening to music and am not listening to her, tothe point I have to pull out/take off the earbuds/headphone and askher what she said (which usually is something she *already saidseveral times at home*). I've already said to her thatearbuds/headphone= music= not listening but she still *doesn't get itand tries to talk to me!*. It probably has something to do with thefact that both my brother and me tend to react to things our parentstalk about with visitors when we're listening to music/playing a game,but that doesn't mean we want to listen to *anything they say!*.

Averted by this troper- he has very sensitive hearing, so if he'slistening to music, you can bet it's on just about the lowest volume.This leads to much flinching when people yell at him in a misguidedattempt to make themselves heard.

All of Japan. Seriously. Just go there.

This troper failed to deter chuggers with headphones. The charityworker literally stepped in front of me and pulled them off and beganto talk about Haiti. A punch to the face ensued (in my defense, it'sbecause I assumed it was a mugger - who the hell else walks up tosomeone and snatches expensive noise-canceling headphones right offsomeone's face?). Fortunately, no legal problems ensued after the guyagreed that it was an incredibly stupid thing to do.

With mine, it doesn't work right; much more often I have the earbudsin but no music playing, and all people ever do is tell me to takethem off. Regardless of whether I show them that the iPod is FREAKING PAUSED.

I am so thankful for this. I don't do it so people will ignore me,but apparently BlessedWithSuck my hearing can put bats to shame,because I can hear absolutely everything, no matter how quiet. Howbad is it? I can often hear people making out...*In the freakingapartment below me! Ugh!* I've also heard a cat meow in the street,and somewhat-muffled conversations between the people next door andbelow me. If I didn't have my headphones, tons of music in myharddrive and a bottle of headache medicine handy, I would probably gohomicidal.

This troper is basically an auditory.

In an example different from the usual "listening to [=iPod/MP3=]"crap, I often wear my headphones when using my laptop, so that I canwatch videos and receive IM alerts without bugging other people. Myparents often try to lecture me while I'm watching Youtube, whichquickly gets annoying as I have to keep pausing the video every timethey start up, and they just won't stop. They quit their ranting, thenas soon as I hit Play, "RAH RAH RAH RAH."

This Troper does it 24/7. Literally, I sleep with the things on.Noone seems to notice though and insist on talking to me. It's not fungetting yelled at, but at least I can't hear it.\* My dad had a cousin who was walking on train tracks with loud musicblaring through his headphones. He was run over by a train and killed.

This Troper actively averts this by wearing headphones a bit off his ears, making them easily audible but not shutting out outside sound. Afriend tends to play it straight...with little bud earphones that are easily overlooked.

This troper inverts it. Powered-up Sordins are nice for listening inon EVERYTHING.

Until my Mp3 player's untimely demise, this was me every day. Ijust can't live without my music for very long. What's cool is, that at school, I have usually have my headphones cranked up loud enough for other people to hear it and I sing along and people in my Theatre department don't care. They just talk louder.