The “Social Listening” Headphones
When the first Sony Walkman was released in 1979, it came with two headphone jacks because the chairman of the company refused to believe that anyone would want to seal themselves off from the rest of humanity with a pair of headphones. “Two headphone jacks will allow a person to share their music with a friend. Make it so!”
So they did–and the two-jack Walkman lasted exactly one generation. We’ve been walking around like anti-social zombies ever since.
Fast-forward to today. Wearhaus has come up with a set of headphones that allows for “social listening.” Read more at GizMag.
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There is a problem with social listening. What if people next to you don’t want to listen to the same music or audio you do. Or worse, what if you don’t want to be bothered with somebody else’s taste of music. The idea seems good, but I don’t think it’s a viable one.