If you were to ask a classroom full of students how many of them own iPods more than half of them would raise their hand. iPods are popular amongst the young people. I see a lot of people sporting them around no matter where I am: the store, campus, work. Have you ever seen someone you know around town listening to their iPod? You don’t know how to react when you see them due to a couple of factors.
First of all, you don’t know if they will even hear you if you said “Hey” because you don’t know how loud they are blasting their music, which creates a debate within your own mind as to whether you should approach them or leave them be.
Second, with those earphones snug in their ear, on the outside it looks like they don’t want to be bothered, which is perhaps why they have it in the first place, so they can go into la-la land. With this thought in mind you think it’s better to leave them alone.
From time to time you will run into a buddy, face to face. In this situation the factors don’t apply. The two of you stop in your tracks to exchange a few words. Your buddy listens to you half-assed by just taking out one earpiece. Courtesy seems like it’s dieing along side with chivalry. Sometimes your buddy doesn’t even take out any earpiece, waves, and keeps walking. Leaving you feel as rejected as last night when you asked that particular babe-a-licous out. Occasionally, your buddy will take out both earpieces.
Do people not like to listen to their natural surroundings anymore? Footsteps, rustling leaves and inaudible chatter are being replaced with thumping drums, shredding guitars and soothing or screaming voices (depending what genre of music you prefer).
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I wrote a poem once about how we are not in tune with nature anymore. The whole ipod thing seems to reinforce it, on the basis that we choose to listen to the recorded voice instead of the our footsteps pounding against the pavement/grass/gravel. We travel in cars with air conditioning and the sound of tires, the rythm of potholes instead of feeling the cold wind or the warm sun as the trees must. We build houses to protect our fragile skin from the elements, umbrellas to sheild us from the rain, shoes to keep our feet from the ground. We are no longer in tune with the veins of the earth.
Why would you want to say "hey" or whatever else to someone you don't know anyway? Just walk on past them and don't let yourself be weirded out by them or their ipod.
And yes, obviously, people are more interested in listening to their ipods than the other noises that surround them. That's why they're listening.
I think the biggest problem with ipods isn't the social issues about them, but the earphones. Kids blast those things so loud they're becoming hearing impaired. Really. I don't think the volume should even be able to go up that loud, for the safety of the listeners. Our ipod generation are going to be trading in their earphones for hearing aids before they're 40 at this rate!
Response quick to above: I think he meant to say "hey" to someone he does know, but is concerned that the person will not hear him.
I refuse to own an iPod. Everyone has one here - everyone - kids and teachers alike. I just don't want one. Every time I get an urge, I think about all the time it will take me to get music onto that little handheld computer, how much time I could be reading, writing, or actually being outside. I won't buy one. I just can't bring myself to do it. I have enough music on my computer to listen to while I work, and music to listen to while I do housework and whatnot. I'm perfectly happy taking a walk or a ski or a bikeride with only the sounds of the outside to hear. I feel like people are so dependant on music (as if they are afraid of silence) that they forget how to be at peace with reality.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/kariskoett
"All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else."
-Buddha
Are we speaking from experience?
I've noticed a certain respect has to be used in these situations. Do you respect the person who wants privacy (the one with the iPod) or are they being disrespectful by not paying attention to you? It's a purely situational thing, in my opinion. Even before iPods came out, people walking around with a walkman or portable CD player was not unusual, and if this person is headed somewhere then you don't necessarily need to stop and talk to them every time you pass them on the sidewalk or hall.
Saying iPods are a threat to society...I dunno, maybe that's exaggerating a little. I said in one blog title that cell phodes degrade society, and even then I knew I was stretching it a little.
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Mind Control is Easier Than You Think
I wouldn't blame the iPod, but society. I just don't think kids today are taught to respect others the way they were taught in the past. Kids seem so much more selfish than they used to be. I never know if this perception is all in my head because I am getting older or because it is fact. It just seems that parents are told they need to kiss their kids' asses instead of just laying down the law and sticking to it. Now adults need to discuss everything with kids before a decision is made, make sure they have a voice....whatever happened to the "because I said so" routine? Not that that approach is perfect, but when kids are able to make their parents walk on eggshells all of the time and pussy foot around their kids, something just doesn't seem right.
I am just appalled at the way I hear kids talk to their parents and adults - or put their head phones in their ears and ignore everyone. Bring back the notion of respect for others!