Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Bepodded!

Recently (O.K about a month ago) I joined with rest of the world in ear-budded bliss. I used my tax return money to buy an iPod. It was kind of impulsive, but I think I'm satisfied. There are some pros and cons to having an iPod (or any other portable MP3 player, for those Mac haters out there)

Pros
-All your music is there at your fingertips, and I you're like me, that's a lot of music. As of right now I have around 2500 songs and 20GB to fill, and I haven't made a dent in ripping my collection.

-Portablity

Cons
-It turns music into a kind of background noise, making it less of the experience it should be, not to say that I don't use music as background noise while I do things ( like write this), but I think the iPod compounds this problem.

-Reduced sociability. I'm guessing on this one, because usually only take it to work, and I don't want to talk to those motherfuckers anyways, but I'm guessing that when you're listening to an iPod in public it makes polite, random conversations more rare. Maybe.

-The Death of the Album. I think this one isn't that big of a deal. A lot of good pop artists are singles artists, and I think the iPod and MP3s in general should encourage more creativity and frequency of those singles, without those artists making albums that are half filler. Besides those artists who feel like it can still make full albums.

All in all, I think the iPod is a pretty cool little think

7 Comments:

Blogger John D. Moore said...

I don't worry too much about the reduced sociability. People don't really do much in the way of polite, random conversation. The ones that really relish engaging in such will speak to you, earbuds or not. And when someone's attempting conversation with me while I'm listening to my MP3 player, I shut it off. People over players.

Enjoy the iPod. (Personally, I still have trouble with iPod as a name -- because it leaves me wondering what the hell a "pod" is.)

8:47 AM  
Blogger Eli McCormick said...

Yeah, its mostly an imaginary complaint, but I've heard it said once or twice before about MP3 players.

11:25 AM  
Blogger John D. Moore said...

I've oft heard it, too. Well, we need something to herald the downfall of society.

11:27 AM  
Blogger Wiglaf said...

Personally, I still have trouble with iPod as a name -- because it leaves me wondering what the hell a "pod" is.

the "pod" in iPod has the sense of the word meaning "module": O.E.D. pod, n.1:8 says "any discrete unit ... which forms a separate or detachable part of a larger structure."

1:27 PM  
Blogger John D. Moore said...

Logan, that makes a degree of sense, true, but that's not the official story from the designers. I read this statement about the creation of the name (a 2001 reference, for chrissakes), and it's only helped to further agitate me.

6:27 PM  
Blogger Wiglaf said...

That's exactly the sense I referenced, though. The space pods in 2001 are small modules that detatch from the larger spaceship, just as the iPod is a small module that detatches from the larger computer.

9:21 PM  
Blogger John D. Moore said...

Well, you're right. I still don't much care for the name (for what are likely either residual or purely visceral reasons), but you're right.

9:38 PM  

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