students

discuss the pros and cons of over-ear headphones.

By Haily Seguiran

Headphones have influenced our halls, our campus, and our self expression. While it has good intentions for students, it also has some concern for teachers such as POE and Geology teacher Corey Kramer.

“ The students don’t pay attention, they can’t hear instructions and they come back and ask for instructions afterwards. I’ve already said it three times, if you take those earbuds out of your ear or headphones out your head you could be able to hear me. My new favorite phrase is you were born with two ears. Why would you cover them up. ” Kramer said.

Kramer’s frustration over students hiding earbuds over hoods and hair may be going away. Just like the trend of airpods ending and over- ear headphones making a comeback to our lives. Over-ear headphones originated in the early 1980’s with the popularization of the Sony Walkman boom. The Walkman was the original portable music device that was allowed on the go. But as of 2023, the bigger headphones have become a trend in students around campus. Starting earlier in the year, students have been seen wearing JBL headphones, Airpods Max 2, Beats, or any other brands of headphones. These headphones have become a trend around our campus because they can not only be used for music appreciators, but in certain fashion styles, can be customized by the student.

Over-ear headphones have influenced students through videos on the internet to various social media platforms. Throughout the year, students like Freshmen Kristina Sargena have seen the influence that headphones make. She describes it as a way for students to self express themselves.

“I discovered them through videos and pinterest, and I saw a lot of people wearing headphones with their outfits. It gave me inspiration for outfits. And I wanted to be independent with my headphones.” Sargena said.

As much as it has influenced our students in a positive way, other people on campus such as Kramer have their own opinions on how it could influence the students negatively in certain situations.

“I think safety wise it can be a problem. If you have that much sound in ears that are well covered then you will have a hard time hearing instructions in emergency situations or even in class. I typically don’t let kids wear headphones or earbuds while we’re doing things. Between classes if something were to happen on campus we need kids to pay attention and get someplace safe.” Kramer said.

Early on, Sargena had different opinions, but now those opinions have changed. Sargena changes her opinions based on the appearance and selfexpression other headphones may not have.

“I switched from airpods to headphones because I don’t like how the airpods look and I think bigger headphones look better. Having airpods, you can easily lose them because you have two, but for headphones you can just put them on.” Sargena said.

Besides Sargena, there are other headphone users, such as Senior Rogelio Rojas. Rojas states that oversized headphones have better quality.

“I switched from airpods to bigger headphones just because they sound better and louder, and people won’t talk to me as much when I do have them on.” Rojas said.

Staff have seen many students with headphones in class and walking the halls. For concerned staff they worry it may cause safety issues. Teachers like Kramer express their concerns with full ear headphones more than airpods.

“If they have to wear them then the airpods because the full ear earphones seal in much more outside sound so if it’s a safety issue then we want a little bit of sound to get in there at least.” Kramer said.

While we have the pros and the cons about bigger headphones, people like Kramer thought the headphones trend ended and have hope that it’ll just be a trend for this year.

“I thought it had gotten away once everybody got over the Beats headphones, everybody started going away, everybody started using airpods so I thought the big headphones were going away but it seems like they are coming back so we’ll have to wait and see. But I think just for convenience and ability to hide them under your hood and under your hair so I think they’ll stick with airpods.” Kramer said.

As there are many music appreciators in our school, and those inspired by this trend Rojas stated that a lot of people in our campus have been seen with bigger headphones because of high quality and style.

“I feel like it’s gonna continue because a lot of people have been switching from airpods to bigger headphones and maybe because of how they look and how the music quality is compared to airpods”. Rojas said.

Illustrated by:Haily Seguiran

1980’s Sony Walkman

1990’s cassette tapes, CDS, minidisks

2001 created IPods for on the go

2004

Bluetooth support streaming music

2008 Beats by Dre first to be intergrated with fashion 2015

First wireless earbuds (Onkyo) with volume control

2017 Airpods beame popular and more used for fashion. 2023

Over-ear headphones became more popular and leaves room for self expression