Silence along the journey

Once again, my 'friends' who come to the streetcar stop across the road and the folks I see in the park  are supplying me with a question for the journey: why do so many of us walk or jog with our ears plugged up with, I presume, music? My sub question is: is this music (or whatever it may be)intended to keep out the world or to keep out the thoughts in our heads or perhaps, both? 

Of course, I guess there is a third option and that is that people like music but if so, why on the street or in the park where there are other beautiful sounds to listen to?

I am guessing that since we live in an age of noise silence is a problem for lots of people. When I entered the monastery so many years ago I was confronted, of course, with many new and difficult things. But the most powerful confrontation was with the silence. Talk was kept at an absolute minimum, there was no radio or TV or music played (except occasionally at special times) and there were at least 2 solid hours of private prayer when one was alone with oneself and God. It was a profound and at first, distressing silence.

One of the first things I think we all faced was the coming to awareness of the stuff in our heads that we had pushed down, out of earshot as it were. This was stuff that maybe wasn't very pleasant (experiences of the past, realities of personal behavior, fears, angers and I guess the list could go on). Suddenly, in the silence it was there and there was no place to run: no earphones to fill the silence, no TV to get lost in, no pub to drown in. There were people there to help at this time, but it was the silence that brought this to the surface of awareness and it was hard. It was in those beginning months that many people left. In time though, the silence became rich and healing and beautiful.

So I guess I wonder if the people I see are really trying both to separate themselves in some way from human demands - even the demand of the other's presence - and also to avoid what is in the heart and the head. I can really understand that but I think by drowning out the silence we are missing a great gift.