Headphones as a Barrier to the Social World

While I love to listen to music on my own when I'm traveling, either a short walk to class, a train ride to the city, and/or even a plane ride to a different country I can't help but feel that I'm missing out a little on the world surrounding me. Usually my love and desire to listening to music overrules this sense of "missing out" but I can't deny this negative side to having my headphones plugged in. I think that the generation now is missing out on listening to the envrionment surrounding us. We miss the passing conversations we overhear, the sounds of nature, and basically the everyday sounds of life bustling about. Yes, the music we listen to is motivating and fun to listen to but it also isolates us from the social world we live in. I wonder, would my perspective on the my environment be different if I just stopped to listen to it without music interfering?