Step into any bus, train, plane or fitness center and you will see something that you never would have even dreamed of five years ago. White wires snaking out of small boxes and ending up in our ears.
I am of course talking about the ipod.
The chances are that even as you read this music is being pumped into your ears or you are watching a recently downloaded episode of South park while trying your hardest not to snigger laughing in public.
You are no doubt in possession of one of the 60million -and growing fast- ipods sold buy apple in the last five years and you may congratulate yourself because you are part of a revolution that has helped topple the idea of record companies, cds and broadcasts.
Yes there have been complaints about the ipod. Their batteries fade to soon apparently the on-off button can be an absolute nightmare and it costs a fortune to buy songs off itunes.
But none of this has stopped ipodmania it has become so popular that even its name is being used as a metaphor. A survey in 2005 should that the favorite hobby among college students was to listen to their ipods.
The ipod has changed us a lot, we no longer need the personal space we used to as we feel more protected in our personal bubble soundtrack, the easy accessibility of music and videos on the go with the new ipod touch with its internet access.
The ipod was also the launching pad for the phenomenon Podcasting. If anyone is still unsure of these and needs an explanation these are digital sound files distributed over the Internet; users can subscribe to them and have them automatically uploaded to their computers and iPods.
Apple upped the ante in this department in 2005 by selling commercial-free episodes of television shows on the iTunes Store, essentially treating multimillion-dollar hourlong dramas as podcasts. No problem if you miss an episode of scrubs or misfits as you can just download the episode off itunes for a modest fee.
Its clear to me that we are indeed the child of the ipod and we will stay that way for some time to come.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-levy22oct22,0,3780790.story
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