What’s with the hype around wired earphones?
As tech and fashion collide, even our electronics complement and sometimes complete the outfit. Your choice of a smartphone can speak for your personality, so does the way you take care of it and how often you upgrade. Tech giants design smartphones in different colorways for different individuals, and that’s outside the customizable phone case hysteria. Your device and accessories have become an extension of self-expression, your personality. And for this Instagram account, the use of wired earphones makes you an “it girl.”
Meet: @wireditgirls.
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With over 8,000 followers, the Instagram account posts photos of female celebrities, often candid or taken by the paparazzi, using wired earphones. All roads point to Lily-Rose Depp and Bella Hadid as the purveyors of this trend. Even icons like Al Pacino and 2010s-era Alexa Chung make appearances with their wires. Wired It Girls also features girls in different variations, such as Catwoman Zoë Kravitz and her black-wired Koss Porta Pros. Basically, you're hot in their book as long as you’re on the wire.
Wired It Girls exists to push the agenda that people will reject the seamless, wireless experience. Beyond all the hype of the tech world’s newest innovations, a population of individuals thrive with the earphones that come in a box (back when brands were that generous).
But why is it hailed as a trend anyway?
Analog vs. Digital: The Ongoing Struggle
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To be fair, younger millennials, Gen Z-ers and the in-betweeners have always had a penchant for anything analog. We’ve made hobbies and careers out of film camera shooting, we collect vinyl records in an era of streaming services, and we all still love the feeling (and smell) of a freshly printed book. So everything that allows us to grasp, hold, play and tinker is what we continue to chase and spend on—anything for the visceral experience. Some might tuck the fascination with wired earphones under this phenomenon.
However, many of us would argue that wired earphones are the way to go for practicality's sake. It’s durable and long-lasting if you take care of it properly. In addition, the prices of earphones are very affordable, a mere 10% of the retail price of Apple’s newest AirPods. Easy on the budget while delivering top-tier sound quality. Sure, wires tangle way too often and risk catching on to something, but a little patience can fix these inconveniences. Although right now, it seems that there’s more to wired earphones than a practically informed decision. It’s now become an aesthetic, a trend. Nonetheless, the view of a dangly white wire cutting through any outfit sends a message.
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The Implications of The Wire™
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For TikTok creator and trend forecaster The Digital Fairy, wired headphones can now be considered “vintage.” Recently, 2010s-era Tumblr is coming back. Here, listening to music has become an aesthetic and personality trait. Meanwhile, Shelby Hull, the brain behind @wireditgirls, cites the mood wired earphones give off. In an interview with Wall Street Journal, Hull explains that “Low-fi tech is seen as more of an aesthetic experience, and it contributes to that cool-factor.” Of course, you have to look the part if you want the world to know that music is your *main* personality trait. Lastly, wired earphones give off a vibe that screams “don't bother me.” How can you send that message when they can barely see it in the first place? After all, hair and hoodies can easily hide these small wireless nubs and buds.
However, using wired earphones also supposedly sends another message: the preference for simple things. As early as 2019, Liana Satenstein wrote about this preference in Vogue after spotting supermodel Bella Hadid using regular Apple earphones. “Whatever the reason, Hadid’s choice for flaunting those classic wires feels strangely luxurious,” she writes. “The choice connotes that she can’t be bothered to keep up with the latest tech and prefers the simpler things in life, which is, oddly enough, the true measure of success,” adds Satenstein.
Despite numerous pushbacks and criticisms on making a big deal out of it, the fashion publication was able to predict the trend that started in late 2021 and continues to soar. Now, titles like Teen Vogue, InStyle and even Wall Street Journal explored and fed everyone’s love for wired earphones, putting out listicles and style analyses highlighting the “highly affordable accessory” that celebrities love using.
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Whether you’re a wired earphones believer because of trends or personal preference, this discussion has a lesson. There’s a visible shift in how people view success and luxury. They now equate it with contentment. Being chill, unbothered and effortless is a goal we should aim to reach. “Cool” means enjoying what you have and entirely ditching the extreme need to have the hottest devices all the time.
If we can perceive celebrities' use of wired earphones as them actively refusing to cave in to the pressure of having the latest tech innovations, perhaps it’s a good thing that many are following suit. That even if people's reasons vary for using wired earphones—for aesthetics' or practicality's sake—the phenomenon might even have us rethink our constant purchases and upgrades.
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What do you guys think of the wired earphone trend? Sound off in the comments below!
And if you’re still a wireless earphones believer, check out this list for your next pair.
Art Matthew Ian Fetalver
