History Main / HeadphonesEqualIsolation

* This trope is the main reason for the US Military's explicit prohibition of headphone use anywhere on a base except fitness centers and its aggressive enforcement thereof.

* Invoked deliberately in some BDSM scenes. Ear equipment is often used in sensory deprivation play.

* In many workplaces, wearing headphones on the job is an OSHA violation because it runs the risk of someone getting seriously injured or killed because they won't hear a piece of heavy machinery coming up behind them.

* Toru of ''Manga/IrisZero'' deliberately invokes this trope as part of his "low exposure" policy. Since [[TeamNormal he doesn't have an eye-related power]] like the rest of the students, he tries to avoid standing out as much as possible to [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer avoid bullying]]. Using headphones and holding a book in front of him are two ways he does that.

* ''Literature/TheFourthProtocol'' by Creator/FrederickForsyth. One of the MI5 Watchers is wearing headphones while tailing a suspect, for exactly this reason.

* ''Film/TrueLies'': The music-loving janitor is unaware of the conflict outside until a Harrier Jet crashes through the window.

Possibly moving towards DiscreditedTrope territory, now that traditional bulky headphones are being replaced with much smaller earbuds (although in the late 2010s, large headphones appear to be making a comeback, especially wireless ones). However, some works may deliberately invoke this trope by having a character choose large headphones over earbuds precisely for this reason. Meanwhile people who are easily overwhelmed by ambient noise may wear ear defenders.

Possibly moving towards DiscreditedTrope territory, now that traditional bulky headphones are being replaced with much smaller earbuds (although in the late 2010s, large headphones appear to be making a comeback, especially wireless ones). However, some works may deliberately invoke this trope by having a character choose large headphones over earbuds precisely for this reason.

* WebVideo/{{Paw|Dugan}} the Music Guy from Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses is never seen without his large headphones. {{Lampshaded}} by Angry Joe in the "Hotel Awesome" videos.

* ''Series/MrBean'': In "Tee Off, Mr Bean", Mr Bean tries to retrieve his trousers which accidentally ended up in a woman's laundry. The woman is wearing headphones (with music loud enough for the audience to hear), and is unaware of Mr Bean's presence. She puts her clothes inside the tumble drier and switches it on, completely unaware that Mr Bean has climbed inside.

** This is also why [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mia_Zapata Mia Zapata]] of the Seattle band The Gits was unable to hear her murderer coming up behind her until it was too late.

* ''Fanfic/FeralnetteAUBigFatBreak'': When Alya offers to walk home with Marinette, only to immediately start gossiping about [[NewTransferStudent Felix]] and asking if Marinette's only befriending him in order to get closer to Adrien, Mari puts on a pair of headphones and walks off, turning on the music to drown out her and Lila's comments.

* [[TheEeyore Ishigami]] from ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' wears large bulky headphones for playing video games (in contrast to everyone else in the series, who use earbuds). Much like his PeekABangs, they emphasise his desire to shut the world out.

* Accelerator from ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' inverts this after he gets a bullet in his head. The earphones he wears are basically part of psychic life support, hooking him up with about [[ItMakesSenseInContext 10.000 middle school girls]]. Of course, because he got the injury during his HeelFaceTurn, he also started socializing a bit more. His powers already enabled him to block out all sounds around him however, something he still does on a regular basis.

* In ''Grimmer Reaper'', Lucas is always listening to loud music on his headphones. While not explicitly a loner, he does have a general fear of other people that the headphones seem to help with. This is a bit of a problem, though, since he can't hear what people are saying to him very well unless he can read their lips, which requires them to be facing him. The fact that he's trained himself to read lips means he's been wearing his headphones for a long time, possibly most of his life, and is unwilling to take them off. This becomes problematic when he starts seeing a blind girl, who generally does not look at him when speaking. She questions him about it, and it is eventually revealed that [[spoiler:Lucas has a severe stutter, but listening to music on headphones hides it and allows him to talk normally. It is similar to how some people with a stutter speak fine on the phone, only stuttering when looking at the person they are talking to]]. During the final battle, when Lucas's [[spoiler:love interest]] is kidnapped and he suicidally goes one-on-one against the god-like BigBad, he takes off his headphones and abandons them on the ground before [[IncrediblyLamePun jumping]] in, his [[spoiler:stutter]] revealed to the other characters for the first time the moment he opens his mouth to speak. Luckily he [[spoiler:[[IAmNotLeftHanded unlocks a higher level of his power]]]] in time to [[spoiler:not make the fight a full suicide]].

* In the first episode of season 2 of ''Series/StrangerThings'', one scientist staffing the evil facility is apparently stupid enough to play music on his headphones loudly enough to drown out the sounds of the instruments telling them something bad is happening.

* In ''Film/{{Paddington}}'', as part of her mild BrattyTeenageDaughter tendencies towards self-isolation, intense interest in learning languages and overall terminal case of embarrassment about her family, Judy Brown tends to stop about the place wearing a large pair of noise-cancelling headphones wherever she goes.