A year ago, while attending a conference in a major city, I would either walk several blocks from my hotel to the conference or ride the subway each day. Traveling through the city, I noticed that the majority of the people wore earbuds (small in-ear headphones) and were somewhat oblivious to what was going on around them. People walked down the street silently, heads down, avoiding people and traffic by means of peripheral vision, never making eye contact with passers-by, and never engaging those around them.