Dear LPG, 

Did you know that the first pair of earphones were invented in 1891?  

But when I was young, you only saw a person wearing them if they worked in an industry where necessary. In war films of the 1950s and 1960s, you would see the regiment’s radio operator stooped on the ground in some jungle or other trying to receive vital information. At the same time, the rest of his unit was busy keeping the enemy at bay amid gunfire and explosions. Classic films would also portray telephone operators in hotels and business reception areas, and deaf people were the only others that would have something stuck in or over their ears.

But then, in 1979, an employee of the Japanese Sony corporation named Nobutoshi Kihara was instrumental in giving the world the Sony Walkman and covering your ears with more than a woolly hat became the thing to do. 

No one noticed so much when they could see the brick that you were talking to, although I now see how the people around you might have found listening to your private conversations a bit disconcerting. Somehow, back then, people always needed to raise their voices while indulging in a telephone conversation in a public place. By the turn of the century, we could do more than talk on a mobile phone. 

My ears were often plugged into music, and they were also an excellent way to study on the go once you could record on the devices they were attached to.  

I have to be counted as one of those face-to-face friends who others had to talk to twice because I was listening to some bit of music. Since I got my first smartphone with its internet connection, I suppose that I would be counted as one of those annoying people who interrupted the peace and tranquillity on the train or bus as I was on the way to work.

It was not long before those big over-earphones became earbuds and more evident because of the wires that lead from your pocket to your ears. And then there was Bluetooth which meant that the phones were still there, but the cables often were not anymore. Now you cannot tell who is plugged in and who is not.  

Do you remember that period in our history when you would walk down the street wondering if the younger people were a bit mad because so many appeared to be talking to themselves? No one bats an eyelid now.

Appearing to talk to yourself has come a long way in the past 50 years… 

GF, Catford.