Students tap their toes to tunes only they can hear. Where’s this music coming from? Where’s the wire? Many students of Vandegrift returned from winter break with Apple’s wireless bluetooth headphones called AirPods.

“I think AirPods became such a great gift for the holidays mainly because of its price tags,” sophomore Amber Leal said. “The more expensive an item is, the more people want it to show off their money. Students wanted them for the popularity, they’re the same as Apple’s original earbuds just without a wire.”

Many people, including Leal and junior Natalie Brink, favor the wireless design of AirPods over normal Apple headphones.

“I asked my mom for AirPods because every pair of headphones I own break in two or three months,” Brink said. “I think it’s because I’m brutal with the wires, so I was like, ‘oh, if I get these AirPods, they don’t even have wires so they won’t break’. I also felt confident in my ability not to lose them because usually I don’t lose my phone or anything, so I thought that they would work the best for me personally.”

Leal doesn’t own a pair, but she says that she’s used them before and likes them, other than the price. There are advertisements of off-brand wireless headphone modeled after the AirPod design that can be seen all over the internet and on social media.

“I’ve seen fake AirPod ads on Snapchat,” Leal said. “These other companies most likely think that having a low quality and cheaper wireless earbud that copies the AirPods will sell like crazy. I personally don’t like the fake AirPod ads, they’re copying a hardworking company.”

Other than these ‘faux-pods’ spreading around the internet, AirPod memes have become popular. The common intention is to disinclude people who don’t own AirPods and bring them down. Leal says she doesn’t find them funny and believes that they will end up hurting people. Brink says she wasn’t aware of the memes until after she had gotten them.

“I don’t feel like I’m better than anyone for having AirPods,” Brink said. “I think it’s kind of silly that this whole thing came about, and I try to stay back from that kind of stuff. I was actually disappointed when it turned into this thing because I just wanted to listen to my music without the wires.”

A popular opinion is that AirPods are pointless and no different than normal Apple headphones. However, it is apparent that the structural design is different. Many people have also reported that beyond the structure of the headphones, the sound quality in AirPods is very good as well.

“I think AirPods are great,” Brink said. “Sometimes I’ll buy regular headphones and I’ll be really upset because the quality just isn’t great. With AirPods, the quality is great and even though the actual pods themselves lose their charge kind of quickly, but the casehold has power for so long that it makes up for it. It’s expensive because it’s an Apple product, probably marked up too high, but I feel like for me, it’s worth it.”