A few weeks ago – back when he wrote for this blog and before he abandoned it to gallivant around “Europe” – my main man Steve Sloot wrote a column/article/post/whitepaper about traveling socializers who put it out there. Particularly ones named AJ. For the record, I think that Steve is a traveling connector conversationalist, too.

Anyway, in the comment thread of Steve’s column/article/post I began a little self-reflection and introspection about my own socializing with strangers – or future-friends, as I call them – on buses, in the street, on my bike, in coffee shops, and many other public places. The reflection basically involved how I interact differently when I’m plugged-in to headphones that are plugged-in to my ipod as opposed to when my ears are open to the world around me.

These are my initial observations.

John Plugged-In

• Information saturation – listening to my ipod satisfies my love of learning new things, be they sports and pop culture facts from The BS Report with Bill Simmons or ideas from, um, Ideas with Paul Kennedy or hilarious edutainment from the boys at Stop Podcasting Yourself. Without conversational distractions, I can also read several pages of my The Walrus or The Book of Awesome or Your World is About to get a whole lot Smaller.
• Rising fun level – starting my day on the bus with some Michael Franti and/or New Pornographers puts me in a great mood and fills me with shareable positive energy.
• Pedal power – when I cycle whilst plugged-in I feel as though I can harness my boom boom pow and go faster.

John Un-Plugged

• Smart people – as it turns out, people outside of the podcast community are great sources of information, too! Chatting with future friends see many interesting narratives unfurled; the only downside is when said narratives turn into one-sided, uninformed, possibly-drug-and/or-alcohol induced rants about the government. Though this can be entertaining.
• Energy creation – I get much of my energy from other people, so un-plugging and opening myself up for myriad conversations is a great way for me to share in the smiles, laughter and passionate debate of others.
• Bicycle safety – if she read this publication, my fantastic former boss, Denise, would walk over to my office and hit me with my Masai job finding club. She is, after all, a strong advocate of non-earphone-wearing-bicycle-safety. And I can’t say that she’s wrong on this one.
• Clarity – speaking of bike riding, I basically mapped out this entire post in my head as I pedaled home from UBC today; such are the possibilities when music and other peoples’ words and ideas aren’t dancing around in my head. One gets a bit closer to the natural world by listening during travels through it.

But that’s enough about me. What are some difference that you notice when you plug-in or un-plug?