People have liked wearing headphones ever since the revolutionary Sony Walkman was released, back in the days when disco was king

And words like "boogie-down," "cool beans," and "jive-talking" were commonplace. More how to clean it for a better experience.

And even if the phrase changed to earbuds in the 1980s, we're still referring to solitary listener devices.

Earbuds obviously go in your ears, often for hours at a time, and frequently when you're engaged in other activities, such as housework, exercise, or travel.

Additionally, the sweat, hair, dead skin, dust, and ear wax that can build up in your ears from regular activities causes your earphones to become unclean.

Essentially, dirt, bacteria, and germs congregate in your earphones. The earphones they evaluated had an average of nearly 120,000 CFUs

Or colony forming units, in a study that measured the amount of microbes on various surfaces. So, to put it simply, they were disgusting!

According to the study, there were 2,700 times as many bacteria on headphones as there were on a kitchen cutting board.

It goes without saying that not all earbuds are created equal, and the quantity of contamination did differ depending on how the headphones were made.

The lesson here is that earbuds must be cleaned, not the least of which is that filthy earbuds can induce ear infections by pushing bacteria right into your ear canal.