Walkman Effect - Controversy

Controversy

The Walkman was the first of a long line of mobile devices to attract criticism for isolating its users, promoting narcissism, detachment, and rude behavior, while at the same time preventing interactions that are the basis for traditional place-based communities.

In his phenomenological analysis of this effect, Rainer Schönhammer argues that wearing headphones interrupts a form of contact between people in a shared situation, even if there's no explicit communication, thereby violating "an unwritten law of interpersonal reciprocity: the certainty of common sensual presence in shared situations." He goes on to draw a similarity with the wearing of dark sunglasses, which causes irritation because there's an inequality in the balance of looking at and being looked at. Similarly, according to Hosokawa, Walkman users blatantly "confess" that they have a secret (something that you can't hear), which can cause negative feelings in observers.

Both men, however, make an effort to counter negative accusations of detachment, isolation, and narcissism. Perhaps most importantly, Walkman listeners are generally happier, more confident, and calmer. The users are "unified in the autonomous and singular moment--neither as persons nor as individuals--with the real," when "absence does not mean that the world is no longer worth attention. On the contrary, the subject's disengagement sets him free to enjoy the world attentively as a colorful and rich spectacle."