Many young people won’t go anywhere without headphones. What are they losing by foregoing silence?

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Atira Gali had already listened to 33,500 minutes of music by mid-November of last year, according to her Spotify account’s annual recap of her user habits.

“I can’t even do the dishes without my headphones because I just get bored,” Gali said.

The 24-year-old New Yorker said she is almost always listening to music or a podcast, starting with her morning commute to her publishing job. During the workday, unless she’s in a meeting or with coworkers, she keeps her headphones on. And they stay on while she commutes home, does her nightly chores and gets ready for bed.

Many young people, like Gali, can often be found with headphones in ear or listening to their current aural fixation from their phone’s speakers. On average, people ages 13 to 34 spend 4.5 hours a day listening to something — whether it be a podcast, music or otherwise — according to a poll released in May conducted by Edison Research. About 56% of Spotify’s global music streams came from Gen Z from January 1 to November 25, 2025, according to a spokesperson for the streaming service.

While regularly using headphones throughout daily life can feel harmless, researchers are worried that excessive use may have a negative impact on our ability to access meaningful moments of human connection and regulate our own minds.

For most people, headphone use is an ingrained habit, rather than an intentional signifier to others. However, even if inadvertently, “people are using headphones to shield themselves from other people,” said Dr. Gloria Mark, chancellor’s professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine.

By constantly wearing headphones, students are missing out on an untold number of social opportunities, said Richard Davidson, founder and director of the nonprofit Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He estimated that 90% of the students getting around the Madison campus wear headphones. “Ten years ago, that wasn’t the case,” he said.

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“One of the amazing opportunities in a university education is to meet people, to meet people who are often different than you are, come from different backgrounds,” said Davidson, the William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry. “If they’re walking around with headphones, none of them are talking to each other.”

Even in coffee shops, Davidson observed that people “just pull out their phone, and rarely do they just stand and wait. That’s just very difficult for people to do these days. Maybe even smile at someone who’s waiting with them. Maybe even chat with a stranger.”

Annabel Franklin, 24, recently watched an episode of an early 2000s television show. She said she was struck by one scene, in which the main character sat on a bench waiting for someone, “just looking around, not listening to music and not looking at her phone.”

“It’s something no one would ever do today,” said Franklin, who lives in New York. “I don’t remember the last time I saw someone kind of drifting into space voluntarily and just sitting alone with their thoughts.”

Franklin said that she listens to music immediately after waking up, estimating that she either has music or a podcast on for 12 hours of the day. “I’m not reliant on them. I just prefer to have them in,” she said, referring to her headphones. “For me, it’s more habitual. It’s part of my daily routine.”

But experts like Mark and Davidson wonder whether headphone use that may feel inconsequential can still have adverse effects.

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Experts say that headphone use may also contribute to loneliness, an emotion affecting as many as 1 in 5 Americans .

Even passing moments shared with strangers can improve one’s well-being, according to Davidson. Wearing headphones can block these crucial interactions.

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“Those simple everyday connections, even and maybe even especially among strangers, may be something especially important for our well-being,” Davidson said. “They are common, readily available, and can sustain our well-being. But if we don’t harness those opportunities, then we’re missing out on activities that are available in our everyday life.”

Constant headphone use can also hinder one’s ability to fully embrace a clear presence of mind.

“I think that people have lost the ability to be able to just sit, you know, sit with silence and let their minds wander or allow themselves to be bored,” Mark said. “There is something always available at our fingertips to solve that problem. To fill that void.”

But what might be perceived as a void can actually be a deeply enriching experience, according to Mark.

Best-selling author and “happiness” professor Arthur C. Brooks says to CNN’s Madeline Holcombe that people who scroll on their phones the moment they feel bored are losing out on the innumerable benefits of letting the mind wander to find the answers to deeper questions.

Not using headphones or other distractions can help improve one’s ability to be present in the moment or be mindful of one’s surroundings.

“The muscle of awareness is our capacity to intentionally be aware without getting lost in a stream of thought,” Davidson said. “Were you paying attention to what you were doing, or was your mind somewhere else?”

“The key is blocking unwanted intrusions in their mind, unwanted thoughts, unwanted emotions, rumination, and these strategies are effective in the moment,” Davidson said, referring to listening to music or scrolling on the phone. “But they’re not enduringly effective. And so, when the music goes off or when the activity ceases, our neurotic minds come roaring back, so to speak, and so it’s a kind of false promise.”

Being able to forego headphone use, or similar distractions can ensure that one’s own thoughts “don’t hijack us from our ongoing activities of daily living,” Davidson said.

Adults spend approximately 47% of their waking daily life not thinking about what is actually going on, a 2010 study found. Davidson is certain that percentage has worsened. “The average adult is not paying attention to what they’re doing.”

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Gali had been curious about the impacts of her headphone use.

Listening to something “takes you out of the task that you’re doing and just improves the experience of doing it,” Gali said, like her “boring walk to work, or doing a chore that I don’t like, or even when I am just working.”

“But I’m also worried that it’s maybe hindering my ability to do these things without music,” she said.

A few weeks ago, Gali decided not to listen to music on her work commute. She wanted to see whether it would “make me feel more present in the world, and therefore more present in my day.”

Two days into the experiment, she had already spotted four signs for new stores coming to her neighborhood.

“I hadn’t noticed them even though I do the same walk literally every day,” she said. “I think I’m just like head down walking when my headphones are on.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Constant headphone use can also harm your hearing. Twenty four percent of adults have hearing loss in at least one of their ears, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Turn the music down — noises at or above 85 decibels can lead to long-term damage.

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根据 Atira Gali 的 Spotify 账户年度用户习惯回顾，截至去年 11 月中旬，她已经听了 33,500 分钟的音乐。

“我连洗碗都离不开耳机，因为那样我会觉得无聊，”加利说。

这位24岁的纽约女孩说，她几乎无时无刻不在听音乐或播客，从早上通勤去出版社上班的路上就开始了。工作日里，除非开会或和同事在一起，否则她都会戴着耳机。下班回家、做家务、准备睡觉的时候，她也一直戴着耳机。

像加利这样的许多年轻人，经常戴着耳机，或者用手机扬声器听着他们正在沉迷的音乐。爱迪生研究公司五月份发布的一项调查显示，13岁至34岁的人平均每天花4.5小时听东西——无论是播客、音乐还是其他类型的音频。Spotify发言人表示，2025年1月1日至11月25日期间，Spotify全球音乐播放量中约有56%来自Z世代。

虽然日常生活中经常使用耳机可能感觉无害，但研究人员担心过度使用耳机可能会对我们获得有意义的人际交往时刻和调节自身思维的能力产生负面影响。

对大多数人来说，戴耳机是一种根深蒂固的习惯，而不是有意向他人示意。然而，加州大学尔湾分校信息学教授格洛丽亚·马克博士表示，即使是无意的，“人们使用耳机也是为了屏蔽他人的干扰”。

威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校非营利组织“健康心灵中心”的创始人兼主任理查德·戴维森表示，学生们因为经常戴着耳机而错失了无数的社交机会。他估计，麦迪逊校园里90%的学生都戴着耳机。“十年前，情况并非如此，”他说。

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“大学教育的一大优势就是能结识形形色色的人，结识那些与你截然不同、来自不同背景的人，”威廉·詹姆斯和维拉斯心理学与精神病学研究教授戴维森说道，“如果他们都戴着耳机，彼此之间就不会交流。”

戴维森观察到，即使在咖啡馆里，人们也“只会拿出手机，很少会站着等。现在这对人们来说太难了。他们甚至可能对一起等的人微笑，或者和陌生人聊聊天。”

24岁的安娜贝尔·富兰克林最近观看了一集2000年代初的电视剧。她说，其中一个场景让她印象深刻：女主角坐在长椅上等人，“只是环顾四周，既不听音乐，也不看手机。”

“现在没人会这么做了，”住在纽约的富兰克林说。“我不记得上次看到有人自愿神游物外，独自一人静静地思考是什么时候了。”

富兰克林说她起床后会立刻听音乐，估计自己一天中有12个小时都在听音乐或播客。“我并不依赖它们，只是喜欢戴着它们，”她指着耳机说。“对我来说，这更像是一种习惯，是我日常生活的一部分。”

但像马克和戴维森这样的专家想知道，看似无关紧要的耳机使用是否仍然会产生不良影响。

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专家表示，使用耳机也可能导致孤独感，这种情绪影响着多达五分之一的美国人。

戴维森认为，即使是与陌生人短暂相处的时光也能提升人的幸福感。而戴耳机则会阻碍这些至关重要的交流。

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戴维森说：“这些简单的日常联系，即使是陌生人之间的联系，或许对我们的幸福感尤为重要。它们很常见，唾手可得，而且能够维持我们的幸福感。但如果我们不利用这些机会，就会错过日常生活中许多美好的活动。”

长时间佩戴耳机也会妨碍人们保持头脑清醒。

“我觉得人们已经失去了静静坐着的能力，你知道，那种静静地坐着，让思绪飘荡，或者允许自己感到无聊的能力，”马克说。“我们总能轻易地找到一些东西来解决这个问题，填补内心的空虚。”

但马克认为，看似空虚的经历，实际上可以带来深刻的体验。

畅销书作家兼“幸福”教授亚瑟·C·布鲁克斯告诉 CNN 的玛德琳·霍尔科姆，那些一感到无聊就刷手机的人，错失了让思绪漫游、寻找更深层次问题答案所带来的无数好处。

不使用耳机或其他干扰物可以帮助提高一个人专注于当下或关注周围环境的能力。

戴维森说：“觉察力是指我们有意识地保持觉察而不被思绪淹没的能力。你当时是否专注于你正在做的事情，还是你的思绪飘到了别处？”

“关键在于阻止不必要的干扰，比如不想要的念头、情绪和反复思考，这些方法在当下确实有效，”戴维森说道，他指的是听音乐或刷手机。“但它们并不能持久有效。所以，当音乐停止或活动结束后，我们神经质的思维就会像潮水般涌来，所以这是一种虚假的承诺。”

戴维森说，能够放弃使用耳机或类似的干扰，可以确保一个人的想法“不会干扰我们正在进行的日常生活活动”。

2010年的一项研究发现，成年人每天清醒时约有47%的时间没有思考正在发生的事情。戴维森确信这个比例已经恶化。“普通成年人都不注意自己正在做的事情。”

研究表明，人们一生中近一半的时间都无法专注于当下。以下是如何改变这种情况的方法。

加利一直很好奇她使用耳机会产生什么影响。

加利说，听音乐“能让你从正在做的事情中抽离出来，从而改善做这件事的体验”，比如“无聊的上班路上，或者做我不喜欢的家务，甚至只是在工作的时候”。

“但我同时也担心，这或许会妨碍我不用音乐也能做这些事情，”她说。

几周前，加利决定在上班通勤路上不听音乐。她想看看这样做是否会“让我感觉更专注于当下，从而更专注于我的一天”。

实验开始两天后，她已经发现了四个即将在她家附近开设新店的标志。

“我竟然没注意到他们，尽管我每天都走同样的路线，”她说。“我想我戴着耳机走路的时候，都是低着头。”

编者按：长时间佩戴耳机也会损害听力。据美国国家耳聋及其他交流障碍研究所统计，24%的成年人至少一只耳朵有听力损失。请调低音乐音量——超过85分贝的噪音会导致长期听力损伤。

每周精选健康生活小贴士，助您轻松享受美好生活。订阅 CNN 的“生活更美好”电子报，获取提升幸福感的资讯和实用工具。