I'm an official iPod person now. I know because I took offense when a friend mentioned to me an article he read which condemned the supposed epidemic of people walking down the street with their white earplugs in and cords dangling down like the tendrils of a new kind of cyborg.
The gist of the article was that iPods (and other such devices) are creating a race of isolated, oblivious individuals, in a split-apart atomistic society. I was quick to counter such a representation, saying that when I did walk down the street with my iPod in place, I was still dutiful in my smiles and attempts at eye-contact. In fact, I argued, my mellow music might be making me more friendly! (And if someone wanted to speak to me, I would pull the doggone earplugs out).
I also made the point that I use my iPod rather than listen to commercial radio, which I despise. It allows space for non-conformity, though the danger is always there that I might become a walking advertisement.
My friend also said the article said that iPods let people create their own mental reality using music--as if this were a bad thing. They said the same things about novels in the late-18th, early-19th century: we can't allow people (read "women") to escape from their duties, to imagining their own reality, therefore novels (a fairly new media then) are bad.
I for one believe that in our increasingly surveillant society any privacy you can get is a good thing. In fact, I often publically use my technology (iPod) to counter the much more invasive technologies of cell-phones. I like inhabiting my own space, dwelling within my imagination, and my iPod helps me do that.
However, I certainly don't recommend doing it all the time. Just like a computer needs some free space to operate at maximum efficiency, mental etiquette requires some silence and spaciousness. We need occasional breaks from media to escape the fate of becoming completely assimilated into market-oriented culture.
So I use my iPod to choose my own commercial-free music and to blot out obnoxious cell-phone users. I'm resisting consumer, conformist culture. But what will I do when I walk down the street and everyone I see has those white cords hanging down and a blissed-out iExpression on their iFaces?
Posted by jeb at March 15, 2005 1:30 PM | TrackBack