ipod and social isolation or just personal barrier
Personal Tech Pipeline | iPod Users Hate Cell Phones - Survey
Bull found IPod owners love the ability to live and work uninterrupted with a personalized soundtrack for their ears only.
“It’s not that they don’t want to know about things, but they want to define the terms and conditions” under which they are disturbed, said Bull
“A world where everyone has their headphones on may not be a very pleasant world,” he said, considering the potential ramifications of IPod culture.
“What happens to the person I’m sitting next to on the bus? Or the person I buy groceries from? Or one’s own family?”
Bull says the desire to use technology to withdraw from the constant barrage of noise and interruption indicates, to some extent, the death of “public space.” But don’t blame IPods.
“In some cases these technologies are an antidote,” he said. “Your IPod user, as they walk down the street in their own sound world, doesn’t have to be disturbed by mobile phone users or anyone else.”
when i’m out of the house, i have my ipod with me and on about 95% of the time. does it isolate me from others? yes, but only to the degree i want. hell, sometimes it doesn’t help. i don’t know if it’s everyone in this ipod world, but people feel more than comfortable talking to me while i have my headphones in my ears! so of course i have to pop one out and ask them to repeat the whole thing. it’s a matter of being not alone, but like away from all the other crap that is going on. plus, it’s a nice way to kind of have running soundtrack during your life. it’s a weird thing. it used to be a specific song would take you back to a certain time, but now with the ipod and other DAPs it’s a whole new ballgame.
oh and fwiw, i’m an ipod user/lover but i LOVE cell phones too (well any consumer electronic really)
