There was a time, not long ago, when wired headphones were something of an embarrassment. Old people used them. Or maybe you were on an airplane, where they pass out free ones made of the same cheap-ass plastic that they make bathroom stalls out of. The future was wireless, and wireless headphones and earbuds largely took over.

Then Gen Z, perhaps tired of Newer, Faster, Better being shoved through their eyeballs and down their throats, took a step back into the Aughts (2000s) and made wires dangling from ear canals cool once again. But have you ever wondered why?

the look of the past. and of the future?

This barely qualifies as going out on a limb, but it’s down to style and fashion. It’s not because wired headphones free you from worrying about running out of battery (true), or their resistance to electronic interference messing with their Bluetooth connections (also true), or the lesser likelihood of dropping one and losing it forever (true once more). Fashions don’t often follow what’s most convenient or best performing.

It’s because at first in the early 2020s, a few famous and famous-adjacent folks were spotted on social media and legacy media covershoots wearing them, and they were swanky folks. Emma Watson, Zendaya, Steph Curry, Lily-Rose Depp, and Bella Hadid are a few who’ve been spotted living life wired in recent years. And then pretty soon we were all seeing just as many white wires hanging out of ears as we say wireless, white “toothpicks.”

But, that’s not to say all those other things aren’t true anyway. Famous folks may very well have gravitated towards wired to thwart the paparazzi intercepting their calls, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have benefits for us plebs. So let’s take a look at why wired headphones and earbuds actually have an edge over their wireless siblings in a few key ways.

No Battery Anxiety

It’s something of a burden to make sure I’m not running my wireless Apple AirPods’ battery down. It happens often, despite my best efforts at keeping them charged. The wireless earbuds’ charge level, and their charging cases’ level, is something I have to think about and maintain daily. That goes double if you like to engage battery-sapping active noise cancelation (ANC).

Wired headphones and earbuds, such as Apple EarPods, don’t have that problem. Their power has to come from somewhere, though. That means whatever they’re plugged into is feeding them electricity from its own battery. It’s a very minimal charge they suck out of my iPhone, though, and it’s less of a burden to use them than it is to make sure I’m not running my wireless AirPods’ battery down, which happens often, or needing to recharge them in their case constantly.

Less Signal Annoyance

Bluetooth is reasonably reliable these days, but “reasonably” isn’t the same as “bulletproof.” Electronic interference from 2.4 GHz WiFi, competing Bluetooth devices, and even microwaves can affect the connection between wireless headphones’ and devices. Wired alternatives have no such susceptibility. Most of us won’t keel over if the signal breaks up or lags on our favorite song, but if you’re in an area in which your wireless earbuds give you constant trouble, it’s time to start shopping some wired alternatives.

And I don’t know anyone, including yours truly, who hasn’t dropped a wireless earbud under an airplane seat or in public, only to watch it land somewhere a hand could never go or skitter away into a hiding spot. With a wired pair, unless you’re being struck by a meteorite, the ‘buds may pop out, but you’ve got a rope to reel them back to you, like fishing. That alone is worth the hassle of unkinking the wires time and again.

Check out our round-up of the Best Wired Headphones and Earbuds to see more of our favorite picks.