Communicators and PR pros, take out those earbuds!
Want a job? New business? Great connections? Stop isolating yourself, and ditch your headphones. If the music’s blaring, you’ll never hear opportunity knocking.
And you know what I see? Earbuds. Earbuds and headphones—they’re everywhere! You sit on an airplane, it’s inevitable your seatmate is wearing headphones. In an airport, same thing. On the train, on the bus, in an elevator, walking along a busy street—what do you see? Earbuds galore and devices delivering what must clearly be a magic elixir.
I hate them!
Earbuds and the devices they’re connected to—and our apparent collective willingness to enter the realm of Don’t Talk to Me I’ve Got My Earbuds In—constitute a huge barrier to interpersonal communication.
Earbuds prompt a disconnect: missed opportunities, missed conversations, missed interactions.
I love people, and I love communicating, and it shows. But even if you don’t love people as I do, you must see the opportunities you’re missing when you’re perpetually plugged in to something other than what’s going on around you—and the people you’re going through life with.
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