By now the sight of headphone-wearing youth is as common as flies milling around cow dung.

The prevalence of these sound-emitting earmuffs has spread like a fat starfish in a yoga class, much to the chagrin of many who expect sociable behaviour from those they encounter.Headphone-wearers appear oblivious to the world around them. Robbed of their auditory senses, they amble about unaware of earnest warnings of oncoming traffic, imminent dog attacks or flirtatious advances.And they're particularly vexing in an office environment. Colleagues wearing their singing ear-warmers seem to forget that people need to communicate with them and once their faces are buried in a computer screen and their ears hidden beneath speakers, there's no way to get their attention, save perhaps by setting them alight.From a societal perspective, the apparent increased use of headphones seems to be yet another note in the requiem for social skills. In an article written for the New Yorker, Amanda Petrusich muses on the topic, wondering if the use of headphones is just another expression of people's increasing desire to disconnect themselves from those around them.By many measures, headphones are the invention of a rather jiggy Satan. But often those who complain about headphones are the same people who describe the younger generation as "millennials", believing that the ubiquity of headphones heralds the apocalypse. But like most things concerning ''millennials", it's an overreaction.Firstly, headphone ubiquity isn't new. The 1980s had all manner of youthful heads attached to Walkmans.As an avid headphone-wearing millennial, the truth is wearing chantey yielding earmuffs is a good way to decorate my auditory space. The world is generally filled with acoustic detritus and this is especially true in offices, where loud people with even louder opinions come together.Despite perceptions, they're also not another nail in sociability's coffin. Headphones don't make people less sociable, but they do provide a buffer from those who pilfer your energy with trivial concerns. Headphones deal rather neatly with an inherent problem with sociability - access.Without headphones anyone can waste your time prattling on about the latest episode of Nigella Lawson's cooking show snug in the knowledge that it would be rude to rebuff their conversation. But armed with your trusty crooning ear bouncers, they must brave a social protocol minefield to deliver their message. Usually it's just not worth it.Ultimately, headphones are the facilitators of inner peace, as written and performed by Black Sabbath and David Guetta...