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Just birds chirping, wind blowing, leaves rustling, all as I walked the same path I walk all the time<
This would be one why I don't wear headphones outside. Hearing the natural ambience of a space is rewarding.
The other personal reason is that I'm in front of a screen about 12 hours a day and crave those few hours of respite from being hooked up to technology.
thinking about stuff (what to eat later, what to do later, etc), chatting with a friend/family member, looking around to see what's happening (construction, birds doing bird things, plants changing shape/size/color, etc), reading, or humming to a song you know (you don't need your phone to enjoy music!)
This reads like satire but I assume you're being serious.
I'm not really doing anything instead. I'm listening in both cases - only the what I'm listening to changes. Listening to music - or podcasts in my case - is a bit of an distraction. I don't want to be distracted all the time. I'm more present when I'm listening to the world instead, and it gives more space for my thoughts. I never even have the radio on in my car because to me, driving is almost a meditative experience and I like to just sit there in relative silence and focus on the driving itself. I'm stimulated one way or another for the vast majority of the day anyway. I think it's good to have these intentional moments built into your daily routine where you let yourself be bored. It's good for you.
I actually pay attention to my environment? I don't walk onto a busy road without looking?
I don't use earphones outside because it's unsafe: Awareness of surroundings is paramount. You say you rarely see a car but not everyone is so lucky. I'm guessing you're younger, too: When I was a youth, walking with headphones or earbuds meant you had a tapedeck or CD player (and later iPod or smartphone) that could be stolen, making you a more attractive target, as well as one that was easy to sneak up on.
What do I do instead? Listen to the birds sing. Listen to snow or leaves crunch underfoot. Sing! Read a book. Skip! Admire the sun through the trees. Look for cool bugs. Have a conversation with a friend. Rehearse a future conversation in my head. Solve math problems. Philosophize.
Don’t tell this person about the times before the ubiquity of iPods (and later, phones).
OP, might I suggest a “music” detox? Spend a month without the need for headphone delivered dopamine.
I play music in my mind.
If I'm walking around a park, I may wear earphones. If I'm walking on sidewalks around the city, I'm way too paranoid. I like to be able to hear my surroundings. Case in point, I was crossing a street at a crosswalk with the walk signal active when I was nearly hit by a car; the driver was clearly distracted and ran the red light. The only reason I wasn't hit was because I heard the car coming and I stopped in the middle of the crosswalk to avoid getting hit. If I had kept going at my pace, I for sure would have been hit.
It's good to enjoy quiet and not be constantly surrounding yourself with noise. It's an important skill to be able to sit in silence and not rely on external stimulation to feel okay.
Because I need to be aware of my surroundings. Street harassment, being followed, etc.
My ability to zone out and get lost in my head is legendary.
Although, I have used headphones for grocery shopping during busy times because music helps keep me from becoming enraged at stupid people.
I've yet to find a device that can survive going 30 meters plus under water. So I'm forced to listen to the world around me.
But seriously there are a lot of times where you need to hear the world around you. Sometimes I go for a walk around town with my earbuds and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I work on a project with music playing and other times it's not feasible.
30 meters plus under water.
Do you live in a pineapple under the sea, by any chance?
I'll get back to this, but I first need to complete my post called "Have you ever spoken to someone in person?"
I let my thoughts wander, and pay attention to the world around me. I've been forced to do this since I can't wear earbuds while my ear piercings heal.
Listen to the voices in my head
There's a passage in the book Fahrenheit 451 where the author talks about people keeping themselves distracted with music 24/7. Instead of listening respectfully to great music with great attention, they listen to silly songs.
Also, I remember all the stories I've read about people who were mugged because they weren't paying attention.
This resonates with me. If I’m listening to music, I want to do it with intention. Pop music is made to be background noise in an already noisy environment. Just sit down and listen for a change. The whole album. Used to be that artists wrote with a theme in mind; now they write to be the next TikTok viral song.
I usually commute in in-ears. Sometimes I just want to listen to the world. Its noise, sounds, people talking in train/tram/bus.
I have also noticed that listening to something leaves me out of my own mind. When I used to walk from school to home alone without music, I would think about things in my life much more. So, sometimes I leave my phones in a pocket to focus on my mental.
I like the sound of what's going on around me. I enjoy catching little snippets of random conversations, the birds singing, the exhaust notes of passing vehicles. I prefer to be aware of my surroundings instead of insulting myself from them. At home, I'm very literally in the woods, and occasionally feral hogs may cross my path, but they make a lot of noise. When I'm in town the variety of sounds is novel and entertaining to me.
I wear earbuds at work, or if I'm running my tractor or lawnmower. I do drive, but I don't always have the radio playing in my car. Sometimes quiet is just nice.
I genuinely have never paired Bluetooth headphones to my phone. So I haven't worn headphones for a phone since the 3.8mm jack was taken from us.
I listen to music when I drive and I wear headphones on my PC.
Walking? 99% of the time that's exercise like hiking, and I raw dog that shit. Listen to nature and and my surroundings.
My thing is that if I'm outside relaxing, I want the birds and bugs and wind. If I can't have those, headphones aren't an acceptable replacement, so I'll fuck off back inside.
If I'm outside as in going about town, I don't want my hearing compromised. It's a fate safety issue. Even bone conduction gear is a distraction that I'm not okay with. Like, it isn't even about being hit by a car or whatever, it could be something as simple as a shopping cart that's loose banging into me. My crippled ass would be in the floor.
My brain is enough stimulation for me. If I'm out in the world, my brain is going to be going a mile a minute scoping everything out. Doesn't matter how many times I've been in a given location.
I try to pay attention to my surroundings because I like being alive. When I do wear headphones I put them in pass through mode.
I usually choose to have a podcast or music on, but sometimes it's really nice to just appreciate my surroundings. I like to hear birdsong, or the wind, the rain. Even cars passing. It's nice to be grounded in the world.
Even when I have music, I spend most of my time when I walk (which is a lot) not looking down at the ground. I look around, and I try to appreciate the little things. The other day, I noticed a really, really polished front door on a house I was walking past. The wood was so bright red and all of the metal was this gleaming silver, it was really striking! There are wild parakeets in the city I live in, so getting the chance to see these beautiful green birds swoop overhead is a treat, too. Where I live is quite hilly, so getting to see what I think are beautiful views of the urban sprawl interspersed with big tree plumages in the green spaces is pleasant, too. Sometimes it's quite imposing, it's not always a pretty and cheery sight, but it's always beautiful.
When I don't have music or podcasts playing, I feel like I can appreciate those sights a bit more. Picking up on snippets of other people's lives is interesting, and I find my mood is easier regulated when I just ground myself in the world around me rather than disappearing up into my head with the podcast or music playing. If I have sound on that I focus on, I'll often not really remember my walking to and from work, but if I'm just experiencing the world, I'll usually find something memorable. I find that slowing down and taking the time away from tech has been nice for me, sometimes.