ipod bashing
The more ubiquitous that the ipod becomes in daily life the more fault people find with it. Well not with “it” per se but rather with the way that it is affecting society. This Times piece goes into great depth on the subject. The argument goes: now that people have the ability to listen to their own music instead of the chatter of everyday life they are missing out on what it means to be civil, and further more are destroying the very essence of society entirely. The observation that those people whom choose to listen to their ipods are less tuned into their immediate surroundings is undoubtedly correct, but the inference from that observation that those people are less likely to be exposed to new, challenging, ideas does not follow. The fact of the matter is that some people are boring, they are going to be boring if they listen to their ipods or not, those boring people are not going to allow themselves to be affected by new, challenging ideas simply because of the fact that they are boring. On the other hand there are plenty of people who are quite vibrant, and who will be affected by new and challenging ideas regardless of whether or not they are listening to their ipods. So I guess I think that if the American society really is being destroyed the ipod should get less credit and boring people who believe boring things should get more.