Walkman effect

The term was coined by Shuhei Hosokawa, a professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, in an article published in Popular Music in 1984.

Although Morita "thought it would be considered rude for one person to be listening to his music in isolation",[3] people bought their own units rather than share and these features were removed for later models.

Whereas someone's attention is fair game while simply walking down the street, riding on the subway, or sitting on a bench to rest, one can appear busy and engaged when doing these activities while listening to music, making any attempt at communication effectively an interruption.

Those who might otherwise be willing to interrupt may be further deterred by the fact that there is a good chance they won't even be heard, rendering their effort futile or embarrassing.

Traditional messages carried by eye contact are, to some extent, dissolved by the music's protective bubble, with the listener seen as unavailable.

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 is no explicit communication, thereby violating "an unwritten law of interpersonal reciprocity: the certainty of common sensual presence in shared situations.