As a kid, I grew up taking the CTA (that's the Chicago Transit Authority, for anyone not familiar) public transit system a lot of places. Or else, I walked. Either way, I quickly grew to appreciate what a difference a simple set of over-the-ear headphones connected to my music player of choice could make in my quality of life.
Random people trying to chat with me? Sorry, can't hear you. I could hear enough to know when emergency vehicles were nearby, and I paid plenty of attention to traffic (and traffic lights) when I was crossing streets or alleyways. And truthfully, I could usually hear enough through those very basic headphones to know whether a random person on the street just wanted to ask for directions, or whether they were there to say stuff that a teenage girl (and a total stranger to them) would rather not hear.
