Headphones block the noise and the warnings. Notice what you’re shutting out.

Anything that filters the world filters without asking. The same thing that spares you noise you did not want also hides the car, the question, the friend who said your name. Shutting out is a real need and a real cost at once, and the cost is invisible by design, because you never hear what you missed.

Keep the habit, and give it edges. One walk a week with nothing in your ears. One meal where the volume is low enough that somebody could reach you. Notice what turns up in the gap.