A Case for Wired Headphones

my humble corded headphones carry my entire in-flight experience 🎧✈️

Picture this— you’re rushing to the airport for an early morning flight. After a relatively quick security process, you decide to grab a coffee at your gate. You nestle into the seat at the gate and unlock your phone to complete your pre-boarding experience with a podcast and— your headphones are dead.

You are now staring down the barrel of a 3.5 hour flight from Barcelona with no entertainment. You’ll be alone in your own head, floating like a speck of dust through the ether, as you count down the seconds remaining on your flight.

Well, this happened to me last week, and if I had wired headphones, I would have avoided this fate.

I do see the appeal of bluetooth headphones. They are sleek and cordless and come in pink. They’re also hands free and while traveling— this can be a big plus.

Online, you’ll find an actual arsenal of headphone options from brands like Apple, Sony, and, of course, Beats by Dre. I still remember being in middle school and seeing the very first Beats by Dre headphones. Everyone wore them like they were high end fashion accessories —which they were— and it left a mark.

But is hands-free listening really worth it?

While bluetooth options are plentiful, wired headphones make the most logical sense. Typically, they avoid the need for charging because they connect directly to a power source while listening. Noise cancelling wired headphones have become commonplace, and just to be clear— wired headphones have saved my phone from shattering on the ground many times and bluetooth headphones have never, not once, prevented my phone from dropping on the ground.

Add to that my genuine skepticism of strapping bluetooth devices to our brains for hours on end —I know, I know, all the studies say it’s fine— and that €579 price tag starts to look a little steep.

When I first started traveling, I would bring my clunky Skullcandy bluetooth headphones everywhere, as well as a spare Apple corded pair. It got to the point where the Skullcandy headphones took up so much space in my carry-on, that I decided to leave them at home and rely entirely on my trusty Apple corded headphones.

These days, when I make my way to the airport every few weeks, my mind runs through the typical manic checklist:

Is my phone charged? Are my liquids separated?

Did I check-in? Am I going to be late?

But I’ll no longer need to worry if my headphones are charged, because I’ll always have my wired headphones tucked away safely in my carry-on.

It makes you consider the impact of it all. That these little ‘conveniences’ invented to make life easier actually end up complicating everything. Things like electric hair removal, iCloud storage, and QR code menus that were created in order to solve problems— but I will never get back the amount of time I have spent trying to free up storage space on my phone and what happens if your phone dies at a restaurant with a QR menu?

The argument could be made that the automation and perceived ease of some modern inventions actually serve to take away some of life’s sweetest moments. Like hanging laundry on a line or making your own bread. But that’s a bigger conversation.

It’s also worth noting that corded headphones had a brief moment in 2021, when celebs like Bella Hadid, Zoe Kravitz, and Lily-Rose Depp were spotted wearing Apple’s signature corded headphones. I’m not sure if it was a PR stunt or what, but it got the internet talking about corded headphones again.

To me, consistently packing my humble Apple corded headphones into my carry-on is a way to simplify my travel experience. It could also be viewed as a statement on my continued resistance to the constant avalanche of marketing campaigns.

Either way, I have chosen my path— I am a wired headphones supporter.

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Do you recall any ‘little conveniences’ invented to make life easier but actually end up complicating everything? I feel like breadmakers are on this list…