I'm certainly not the only headphone addict. Just looking around a Tube carriage at everyone plugged in is a bit unsettling – like you're watching some freaky sci-fi. For 29-year-old Miyo Padi, headphones have also become a crutch: “I hate being approached by strangers so I'll have music, podcasts or audiobooks on from the second I leave home until I get to work, through my lunch break, and from when I leave the office until l reach my front door. It's become a habit I can't break,” she says. “I get panicked if I forget them, so I have a charger and spare pair at work, a pair in every coat and have in the past bought them for a single Tube journey. I just can't face silence alone.” I'm not really sure what it is about silence that we're all so desperately afraid of.