Being older I find them a statement on our society and culture. I have no desire to wear earbuds or earphones. I go to a university gym to do my geezer workout and virtually all the young students there have their ears plugged up with these things. No one talks to one another and inbetween sets on the weight machines they're riveted into their smartphones.

To me this generation doesn't socialize as much as stay in their personal artificial environment. I speculate on whether or not that will have unforeseeable implications in the future.

When I went to a YMCA to do my ritual I refer to, "trying to keep the grim reaper playing solitaire". There were many other mature types like me that liked to commiserate with one another.
I just wonder about this isolation the younger generation prefer.  

Anyway, speakers are my preference. Big ones.