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As someone who covers wireless earbuds, I take the tangle-free convenience of Bluetooth for granted-but not everyone feels the same. If you haven't noticed, wired earbuds and headphones are cool again and have been around for a while.

Take Addison Rae's music video for "Headphones" as an example, where the stars are Rae, a horse and a pair of wired earbuds. It's a moment tailored for wired IT Girls, an Instagram account that is mainly a record of celebrities wearing wired headphones. Of course, being a "IT Girl" is just a mentality. You will also find people like Paul Mescal, Adam Driver, and Harry Styles seem unpopular, even if they aren't entangled.

I won't miss figuring out the frustration of wired earbuds or getting caught in the horror of the door handle, but the appeal of wired earbuds isn't hard to appreciate. You never have to charge them, you can take a bud out without losing it, and there will never be any problem with Bluetooth drops. They also tend to be cheap.

And the cooler factor that is shorter: I don't know what An earplug swayed around. Shelby Hull, who runs the wired girl, said: "I love wired headphones, not only because it sounds better, but because they let people know that I don't want to get close. They are stylish, smallest, and are accessories for clothes."

Hull has been documenting the return of wired earbuds since 2021, and she has no shortage of 2025 paparazzi shots to choose from.

So, what earplugs did the hull swear to issue? "My favorite wired headphones outside of classic Apple wires are the beige Koss Porta Pros," she said. "They sound great, don't spend a lot of money."

The Porta Pro headphones have undeniable charm, retro-style screaming "JazzerCise" and useful features such as online controls and a surprisingly compact shell. Of course, these headphones weren't retro when they were introduced 40 years ago, but they've been around long enough for the second act.

As for Apple's wired earplugs, Hull has multiple pairs. "I used lightning pieces for my phone, the USB-C for the iPad and the headphone jack for the laptop, and movies on the flight! I'll be on the on to Im on to Imains."

Another option worth considering is Sony's MDR-7506 headphones. I used them in my college radio era and they remain the default choice for many podcasts and radio stations due to their nearly indestructible builds and neutral sounds. Without an online microphone or control, the MDR-7506 headphones will be as bare and wrinkle-free as they were at the beginning. But that's the point, right?