Last Saturday I productively pottered about ThePalace(OfLove) listening to a couple of podcasts and then a couple of audiobooks via my trusty airpods.

By late that evening I could hear a bubbling sound in my ears, had slight ear pain and felt like I was coming down with a cold. Pretty obviously the result of having the airpods in my ears for 10-12 (or maybe a little more) hours. I’ve always had weird ears and was super-prone to ear infections when I was small and I still get those bubbly ears after too much swimming or, weirdly, staying in headstand for too long.

So I vowed to lay off the airpods for the next few days to let the poor ears recover. It was only then that I really realised how much I actually have devices in or over my ears:

+ Exercise? Headphones – music
+ Walking? Heaphones – podcast / audiobook / Japanese
+ Catching the train? Headphones – podcast / audiobook / Japanese
+ Need to focus at SML? Headphones – music
+ Housework? Headphones – podcast / audiobook
+ Knitting? Heaphones – podcast / audiobook
+ Cooking? Headphones – podcast / audiobook

Not a day passes when I don’t listen to something via headphones. Isn’t it interesting how habits can form without you being at all aware of it?

A couple of days of non-listening and I decided it was time to return. I tried my AirPods, I tried giant over-ear headphones, I tried my favourite original round old skool iphone earbuds. I tried minimising my listening.

And still the uncomfortable bubbly ears and slight pain returned.

So I’m taking an extended break and carrying around a small bluetooth speaker to allow me to listen to things – which works in ThePalace, but less well in other environments.

And of course I will head off to the GP if this doesn’t improve.

I’m not super-keen to permanently reassess my listening habits, but I fear this could be in my future.

2966 days