Professor iPod Discusses Device's Social Impact 375
PurdueGraphicsMan writes "There's an interesting story over at Wired News, involving an interview with UK university professor Dr. Michael Bull, apparently the 'world's leading expert on the social impact of personal stereo devices,' according to The New York Times. The piece also mentions: 'Bull, a lecturer in media and culture at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, is the author of 'Sounding out the City: Personal Stereos and the Management of Everyday Life', a book Bull calls the 'definitive treatment' of the impact of the Sony Walkman and its descendants.'"
I think the Prof's name is a hint.... (Score:3, Funny)
I'm sure it's quite flattering to the elitist Apple snots, though.
Re:I think the Prof's name is a hint.... (Score:5, Informative)
home > people > departmental faculty > Dr Michael Bull
Dr Michael Bull
Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies
Location: ESSEX HOUSE 209
Email: M.Bull@sussex.ac.uk
Telephone Numbers
Internal: 8788 or 2574
UK: 01273 678788 or
01273 872574
International: +44 1273 678788 or
+44 1273 872574
BSc (Bristol), MA (Greenwich), PhD (Goldsmiths)
Research Interests
Mobile comminication technologies and their use, Music and sound in urban culture. New directions in Critical Theory (The Frankfurt School).
Selected Publications
Books
2000 Sounding Out the City: Personal Stereos and the Management of Everyday Life. Oxford. Berg.
2003 The Auditory Culture Reader (edited with Les. Back,). Oxford. Berg
Journal Articles
2001 The World According to Sound: Investigating the World of Walkman Users. New Media and Society. Sage London.
2002 The Seduction of Sound in Consumer Culture in Journal of Consumer Culture
2003 "Towards an Aural Epistemology of Proximity and Distance. Mobile Technologies and their Use" in Space and Society (forthcoming)
2003 "Alone Together: The Culture of Mobile Listening in Automobiles" in Social Studies of Science. (forthcoming)
Chapters in Books
2001 "Space, Place and Music: A Critical Ethnography of Automobile Habitation" in Car Cultures. (ed D. Miller) Berg. Cambridge.
"Personal Stereo Use and the Aural Reconfiguration of Representational Space" in New Technologies and Spatial Practices (ed S. Munt) Cassell. London.
2003 "To Each Their Own Bubble: Mobile Spaces of Sound in the City" in Place, Space and Culture in a Media Age (ed N. Couldry and A. McCarthy) Sage, London. (forthcoming)
2003 "Thinking about Sound, Proximity and Distance in Western Experience. The Case of Odyssius's Walkman" in New directions in the Anthropology of Sound ( ed V.Erlmann.) Oxford. Berg. (forthcoming)
Translations
2003 Sounding Out the City is published in Japanese by Hituzi Sybo, Tokyo.
Book reviews
Theodor W, Adorno, Metaphysics: Concept and Problems, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000 Sociology 2002, David Morley, Home Territories: Media, mobility and Identity, London, Routledge, 2000. New Media and Society. 2002
Recent Conference Papers and International Workshops
March 2002 Rethinking Networks: Fluid Networks, Fluid People. Helsinki, Finland.
Towards an Aural Epistemology of Proximity and Distance: Mobile Technologies and their Use.
April 2002 "Hearing Culture": New Directions in the Anthropology of Sound. Oaxaca, Mexico.
Thinking about Sound, Proximity and Distance in Western Experience. The Case of Odyssius's Walkman
April 2002 "Musica Urbana" University of Bologna.
The Aural Privatising of Urban Space and its Social Implications.
November 2002 Sound Matters. New Technology in Music. University of Maastricht
The Culture of Mobile Listening: From Walkmans to the Automobile as an Acoustic Theatre.
Teaching
Michael teaches undergraduate courses in: Music and Media, Media, Technology and Everyday Life, The Media in the Era off Globalisation.
Re:I think the Prof's name is a hint.... (Score:5, Insightful)
The point the first poster was trying to make is be wary of folks that are called "experts" on topics like this.
Academia has a strange way of annoiting people with "expert" titles for things. You'd be shocked how many of these so called "experts" are bluffing their way through. I'm not saying their ALL like that, but seriously, there are a lot. I mean really, look at the guy they refer to. He's been at it for THREE YEARS. There are other people that have been at this for much longer, who are likely more worthy of the title "expert".
Those of you with jobs at universities will know what I'm talking about.
Professor iPod? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Professor iPod? (Score:4, Funny)
How does a professor get a reputation like that, downloading a buttload of mp3's?
Re:Professor iPod? (Score:3, Funny)
That, or out of a ceral box.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Why question his credentials? (Score:5, Funny)
Just let go of your suspicion and paranoia and put your trust in someone for a change. What's the worst that can happen?
$400 is too much for a personal stereo (Score:3, Offtopic)
I got one and it plays my 15 cent CD-Rs with ten hours of music just fine. (although slow to start MP3 disks).
I had to replace to weird AC adapter connector though, because it was impossible to find a cheap AC adapter that fit the custom connector on it.
Re:$400 is too much for a personal stereo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:$400 is too much for a personal stereo (Score:5, Insightful)
It's always a favorite thing of anti-iPod folks to say that it's only a "personal radio", but you sound like my Dad bitching at me when I was 15 for liking that "new-fangled acid rock". A bit outta touch....
Re:$400 is too much for a personal stereo (Score:3, Insightful)
Your point is interesting, but the cost issue still is most important for me.
The MP3 CD player is about three times larger than the iPod, still small but not shirt pocket size. The internal media storage of the iPod is a real plus, but storing 4000 songs on DVD-ROM takes only five disks. Assuming about five megabytes per song, it is about 28
O, the persecution! (Score:4, Funny)
It's OK. Feel the pain of that trauma. This is Slashdot. You can cry here.
Re:$400 is too much for a personal stereo (Score:4, Informative)
- Lots of music in one place, at your fingertips
- "Mix" on the fly
- Use it as a portable hard disk
- Some PDA functionality
- Good battery life
- Not much skipping
- Fast file transfer on a new PC
- Files can be transferred on anything with USB or Firewire
- iTunes compatible
And the list of non-plusses:
- If charged daily [ipodbatteryfaq.com], $99 yearly battery replacement fee
- Battery replacement takes longer than one day.
- Storace space cannot be increased through standard methods.
- When the battery goes flat, you have to charge it.
- Also, when the battery is flat, the units data contents are not-transferrable
- Cannot use iPod's music (or data) with anything that doesn't have a USB or Firewire port.
- High initial MSRP cost.
- Cannot play music bought at record store without intermediate steps
- Cannot play your friend's CDs without intermediate steps
- Data format not car stereo compatible
Benefits of a CD/MP3 player:
- Low initial MSRP cost.
- Infinite storage space
- Can mix data and music
- Can reload with fresh batteries if ones in unit die
- Fresh batteries are available anywhere, anytime and take under 10 seconds to replace
- Choice of rechargeable or non-rechargeable batteries
- Files can be transferred to anything with a CD player
- Fast file transfer with any age of computer
- Does not require batteries to transfer data
- Can play back music on many DVD players
- iTunes compatible (if using recoded CD)
- Can play music bought at record store instantly
- Can play your Friend's CDs instantly
- Data format car stereo compatible
Lowlights of a CD/MP3 player:
- Cannot remix between discs
- Requires charging more often when using rechargeable batteries
- Bulky
- Not compatible with anything lacking a DVD or CD-ROM.
- Lacks PDA capabilities
- Older units had skipping problems
- Slow seek times
As you can see, there's strong points on both sides of the debate. As you can imagine, being a car stereo owner, I have a CD/MP3 player.
Re:$400 is too much for a personal stereo (Score:3, Informative)
Hey, if it works for you, that's great. However, I'm enjoying the 12 - 20 kHz frequency range too much to give it up for tape warble.
The best bet, for such things, is to get ahold of a stereo with either AUX in (easiest) or CD-Changer in (harder, but often doable). That way you don't get any more loss than what's already present from the compressed music file.
Re: $400 is right for some people (Score:3, Interesting)
system as you pay your whole music collection.
example: say you've the kind of person who's only bought 10 CDs.
at ~CDN$15/each, that's about $150 - so you shouldn't buy a stereo
worth more than about $150 - a cheap gheto blaster will do you fine.
on the other hand -- say you're the kind of person who's really
into music, and you've bought yourself about 300 - 400 CDs - at the
same rate, that's about $4500 - so you shouldn't feel bad about going
out an
Re:$400 is too much for a personal stereo (Score:4, Insightful)
Me. I REALLY REALLY love music. It is #2 next to breathing on my priority list. I never know what I'll want to listen to and CDs are major, hassling, inconvenient, bulky, old hat now after seeing the light. I can listen to anything in my collection, any time I want, wherever I want, whenever I want.
I'm not saying that's for everyone, but for a HUGE music fan, it's gotta say something. It's a matter of degrees of music obsession perhaps.
Re:$400 is too much for a personal stereo (Score:3, Interesting)
The normal day-to-day facts of life family and home act as obstacles to the items you list above. Once out of college and into "the real world," we have to be much more choosy about the venues we visit and when we find the time to visit.
I have 30% of my CD collection on my iPod, adding more each day, am finally converting my vinyl
Re:$400 is too much for a personal stereo (Score:5, Informative)
1. Put the album into your computer.
2. Select all of the tracks.
3. Go to the advanced menu.
4. Select "Join CD Tracks."
5. Rip and transfer to iPod.
This is, for example, how I am able to listen to King Crimson's "Lizard" in it's proper form on my iPod.
Target Clearance - $150. (Score:3, Informative)
Good thing you didn't tell them it was $400!!
So let's see, I got a 10GB portable hdd + mp3 player for 150$ (7.5 times what you paid), 10GB/800MB = 12.5 times the capacity, along with tremendous extra functionality.
Re:$400 is too much for a personal stereo (Score:5, Funny)
ObMontyPython (Score:3, Funny)
Re:$400 is too much for a personal stereo (Score:3, Insightful)
If there is, then, yes, your reasoning trumps mine. But if all you have is $20 for a personal stereo, then having a CD player is far better than having no iPod.
The iPod is the latest of the Steve Jo
Re:$400 is too much for a personal stereo (Score:3, Insightful)
Absolutely anything can be stolen. Do you always buy the crappiest bike or car because "it can be stolen"? Crappiest TV and stereo? I suppose if all your belongings have as little value as possible then that may mitigate the likelyhood of thievery.
What was my point? Oh yeah. Anything can be stolen. You're better off worrying about securing what you have, than trying to make your possesions unappealing to potential thieves. I could steal you
Re:$400 is too much for a personal stereo (Score:3, Informative)
I really kluged it. The adaptor plug from the outside looks the same as the ones on a Walkman, but after getting it home I found that the standard Walkman plug won't fit onto this power jack in the CD player. "Shit, chumped again," thought I. "A proprietary jack to make everyone buy a $25 AC adaptor for a $20 CD player."
I carefully opened the unit and mapped the connections with an DVM ohmmeter. Then I desoldered the connector, attached three wires to the now-empt
Re:$400 is too much for a personal stereo (Score:3, Insightful)
Millions of people HAVE bought iPods, and think they're worth every penny. You have a different opinion, and that's just dandy. It's just not an opinion that is of any value or insight to anybody else.
I'd rather be Steve Jobs than Bill Gates any day. Both of them are megalomaniacal freaks, but at least Jobs' design philosophy makes products people actually enjoy using.
Richest man in the world? Sure, that'd be great, but not if
Of course iPod is successful (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Of course iPod is successful (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Of course iPod is successful (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Of course iPod is successful (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Of course iPod is successful (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Of course iPod is successful (Score:5, Insightful)
I've had my iPod for over a year and it's been working fine. I've had a couple of "oh no" moments when it made a short fall to the floor (2 feet or so), but it's been running fine. And I get excellent battery life.
Leading expert on WHAT?! (Score:3, Funny)
From the article (Score:5, Funny)
He must be new at this.
Social Impact (Score:5, Funny)
Walkman (Score:5, Funny)
Devices and Their Tools (Score:5, Insightful)
Dr. Bull's work reminds me of Sweden's social engineering efforts. How we use something, how far do we go to utilize the device(s), etc.
Dr. Bull says, "It gives people totally private worlds." While that may be true, it also removes people from social interaction, which is vital for mental health.
Re:Devices and Their Tools (Score:5, Funny)
apply that to
I've never understood the phenomenon... (Score:2)
Re:I've never understood the phenomenon... (Score:5, Interesting)
There's nothing wrong with "auto-mind-control"; in fact it may be one of the gems of evolution. We all practice self-mind-control all day long, directing our thoughts to what it most important, monitoring our progress and allocating mental resources. We also do things like drink caffeine to self-regulate our arousal and some practice meditation to affect their mental functioning. I certainly use music to either help me focus on my work when its time to do that or to help me forget it when its time for that. Thank goodness for the prefrontal cortex!
Not all social interaction is good (Score:5, Insightful)
A good Walkman was *vital* for my mental health.
And when I was in college walking to/from class or wherever, a good walkman made the walk more enjoyable. It's not like I was going to have a social interaction with 99.9999% of the strangers I walked past in the first place.
Re:Not all social interaction is good (Score:5, Insightful)
And that's an important aspect as well. I suppose what I was getting at was that people use iPods and Walkmans to escape from social interaction with most people they know. For example, I don't allow my children to listen to their Walkmans while they are in the car because that time can be better spent getting connected with one another.
Re:Not all social interaction is good (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Devices and Their Tools (Score:2)
Indeed, and when you play your boom box on the bus or your cell phone goes off in the theater you are likely to be subsequently engaged in social interaction for the mental health of of the public weal.
You arent' guarunteed much mental, or other, health out of the deal though.
KFG
Re:Devices and Their Tools (Score:5, Funny)
Bullshit!
There is plenty of social interaction in the average day. The Walkman/iPod allows you to use it as a gateway to that interaction.
"Being Morally Opposed To The Walkman Carries With It Certain Responibilities"
by Penn Jillette
I was leaving my business manager's office. The elevator arrived right away and I got on to find there was another passenger. She was black, she had a beautiful smile, her headphones blended with her hair, and she was listening to some pop love song on her Walkman. It was loud, but I couldn't make it out. Maybe I'd never heard it before, but it was a love song. I smiled, slipped on my super-cool candy-red headphones, and turned the Clash's London Calling way up.
We had ridden together for several floors when we were joined by one of those bicycle delvery guys. He had a little hay, the tight black bicycle pants with the reinforced crotch;he was Hispanic and had the little tiny headphones that fit right in the ear so you can only see a couple little spots of blue and some wires coming out of the ears. He looked at us, wrote something on a manila encelope, put it in his backpack, and turned up his music. I have no way of knowing what he was listening to, because "Revolution Rock" was filling my head. But whatever it was he was enjoying it. We swayed our heards together in different rhythms.
The three of us rode a few more floors, then we were joined by a businesswoman type. She had on one of those female biz suits, and her hair and makeup were soft and natural. I think she ran every morning or at least took a dance class. Through the light tint of her glasses, I saw her look at each of us and roll her eyes up. Then she started shaking her head like we wern't going to notice. My fellow passengers didn't notice, but i slipped my headphones down around my neck and said, "It must sound like Charles Ives out here, huh? Is it too loud for you?"
She gave me this little condescending smile through her tastefully lipsticked mouth and said, "You people just cut yourselves off from everybody, don't you? I mean, it's really bad enough that no one even makes eye contact anymore, but you people just walk around in your own little worlds. We're a culture of very lonely people. It's sad. It's really very sad."
Since the other two people in the elevator were in their own respective little worlds, I appointed myself spokesperson for us three lonely people. "You were really dying for some human contact here, wern't you? Huh? You walked on this elevator and said to yourself, 'Oh, Jiminy Cricket! I really wanted to talk to this delivery boy, this receptionist and this big ugly sone of a bitch with a square head. But, alas, they've cut themselves off from my personal contact. I guess I can't have any meaningful dialouge with them. Darn!' You don't give a yuppie-tweed fuck about the three of us! You just need something sensitive and humanitarian to talk about over your fuckin' power lunch... I'll make a deal with you - we'll take our headphones off and we'll listen to you, but you better have something to say. And when you ask him what kind of bike he has and he tells you, you better really care. And you better keep us entertained... do a little fuckin' dance if you have to! When each of use walked onto the elevator, we smiled at one another and you just rolled your fuckin' eyes. So, you want personal contact? Shoot!"
So, this was another elevator ride in the big city during which I didn't fall in love, make a friend or even set myself up to get laid.
But I do enjoy the Clash.
I bought an iPod Mini (Score:5, Funny)
Thank God there are scientists researching this shocking phenomenon.
Re:I bought an iPod Mini (Score:5, Funny)
"Safety" can come at a price (Score:5, Insightful)
When I use my iPod in public, I often realize that by avoiding that interaction, I may feel more 'safe' but I am also missing out. Usually I take my iPod headphones out when I'm in a situation where I could interact with people. I like my music, but I think the sense of security is very false.
Re:"Safety" can come at a price (Score:2, Interesting)
I think so as well. That "safe" feeling often leads to what psychologists call Crowded Lonliness, i.e., to be surrounded by many people yet not interacting with them (except to divert your vision from them).
Re:"Safety" can come at a price (Score:3, Insightful)
Second off, I use my Discman, it's on the commute. I really can't say that I'm missing out on anything while sitting on the train. No one interacts on the train. I'm not missing out on the walk from the station to work either - who would I interact with anyway?
I could see how your comments would make sense if you were using your iPod in a bar or restaurant, but I
Re:"Safety" can come at a price (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a great backup device, and it's a great personal stereo.
I stopped using my iPod outside of the car when I realized that I was feeling a lot less grounded in the real world than I'd been before. I realized that I was closing myself out from interactions with other people. As a nerd, I have too few of those in any event, so I recognized the unit as a gant step backwards.
However, it's great in the car, and I can't wait until I get an iPod compatible car stereo so I don't need to wear those awful earbuds.
Oddly enough, until that time, I've actually wound up using it more as an audio source for my home stereo. It works great there too, and I don't have to bother with earbuds. I suspect that will be its primary use until I get a car stereo compatible with it.
Leaving it at home ruins it as a disaster recovery backup, though, which is a bummer
D
Re:"Safety" can come at a price (Score:3, Informative)
Re:"Safety" can come at a price (Score:5, Funny)
Hm, try turning the dial away from NPR during pedge week.
Re:"Safety" can come at a price (Score:3, Insightful)
However, the presence of people has downsides. Using your iPod lets you escape those downsides, while still retaining the safe feeling.
Apple "gets it right" (Score:5, Insightful)
Whether it's intuition or hard research, more often than not Apple gets it right. The other computer companies usually go for "good enough" and as cheap as they can make it, and that got them market share but not that much loyalty. Now that the computer companies are being forced by reduced margins into the consumer electronic space, they are going to be faced with a different mindset. People who buy electronic widgets do not say, "Hey, who cares if it's a beige box, I don't care what it looks like, I just want cheap!" Instead people want stereos and televisions and DVD players that have quality features and look good with the rest of their stuff. Low price works to some degree here, but high-end does quite well too.
Apple has been there all along. There's a reason Apple users tend to be loyal despite the occasional hiccups from Apple and historically higher margins: They get it right. And boy does that matter in the consumer electronic marketplace. For proof of that, just walk around any large city and count the iPods. They got it right.
Re:Apple "gets it right" (Score:3, Insightful)
Now? I haven't bought a Sony product in years.
(not) Impressed... (Score:4, Funny)
Wow... I'll bet that one was a highly-contendted for title....
Some good points (Score:3, Interesting)
My iPod Prof (Score:5, Interesting)
This man has used computers to teach for a long time.. He used to make hypercard stacks with his students, to store key cases and biographical information of justices.
More recently, he's made oyez.org, where users can listen to oral arguments on all these Supreme Court cases that get argued over on /.!
Jerry Goldman got his picture in the NY Times holding his iPod, and he was thinking about its teaching potential way before it was the hip/ubiquitous gadget on campus.
What a great guy. Best thing is, he sends out syllabi in PDF, unlike the idiot PhDs who use Word docs, which bothers me because I'm using an ancient linux laptop.
for those of you who are interested (Score:5, Interesting)
As a discipline it is well respected in it's theoretical break from English Literature. I.e. we can have TV and radio and internet. "Pop culture" not just shakespeare and opera of high brow snobbery. An interesting discipline to say the least. The problem that many slashdotters might have with it is that it is not "scientific" and is overly concerned with aesthetics rather than politics.
This problem is solved, in part, but Media Studies which is in turn a break from Cultural Studies. Media Studies not only views the aesthetic and popular culture, it examines the way in which media operate as political constructs. It also doesn't deny the possibiliy of "research" and could best be described as Cultural Studies meets Sociology meets Politics. Politics is given preference over "art", because if art is political then one can't view it in the abstract right? So "media studies" isn't some weak Public Relations wannabe cop-out subject - it is the end-point of a massive evolution from English Literature to a more relevant and theoretically grounded area in which social research can be conducted, albeit with much time devoted to questions of research in and of itself (i.e. theory, qualitative and quantitative debates).
In other words Media Studies is something worth checking out in the liberal arts because it encompasses philosophy, politics, pop culture and studies of power all inside a carefully crafted approach to pragmatic research.
Notes on "philosophy" vs Media and Cultural Studies
=====================
You will find many high brow philosophy ppl looking down on cultural studies and criticising it. But the basic difference between the two that I will put here is --- philosophy assumes the operation of logic is "given" and aspires to "truth". Whereas cultural studies says there is language, but that language is inherently unstable and therefore we cannot rely on it as a 100% pure form of communication. Cultural Studies also critically reflects on what is considered "logic".
In other words in philosophy some things are "out of bounds" and in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory they are not --- who then is being more intellectually rigorous? Also there is little to no teaching of 20th century "postmodernism" in Philosophy departments, whereas in Cultural Studies we welcome all of the philosphical tradition and there are no "right" answers to these debates (as they are ongoing debates, how could there be a right answer just yet - if ever).... Again, who is being more rigorous and who is excluding things?
Dr. Bull's earlier work gives me doubts (Score:5, Funny)
This is lame (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This is lame (Score:3, Insightful)
Cranial nerve 8 (Score:2, Funny)
seeing the future (Score:3, Funny)
Looks like I got the same deal with my Wired subscription!
Ding, ding ! - goes off bullshit detector (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Ding, ding ! - goes off bullshit detector (Score:5, Insightful)
Because I can carry about 2500 songs that *I* like on a very nicely designed device.
FM:
Because I don't have to listen to idiotic DJ's or pay lots of bucks every month for Pay Radio.
Re:Ding, ding ! - goes off bullshit detector (Score:3, Interesting)
Call
It can turn itself off! (Score:5, Funny)
Bull: Right. In terms of usage, Apple got it intuitively right. People use (the iPod) as an alarm clock, and when they listen to it at night, they like the fact it can turn itself off...
My God, those Apple engineers are geniuses!
Let's see, I don't have an iPod, but my portable MD player can turn itself off. My $30 cassette player can turn itself off. The Sony radio-cassette player we had in our house thirty years ago could turn itself off.
In fact, that old Sony could even turn the radio off. With a tape playing, you could turn the radio on (which would override the sound from the tape), and when it got to the end of the tape, both the tape and the radio would shut off.
Casual use by casual music fans (Score:3, Interesting)
I find this completely inane. Why would people buy such an expensive device if they're only going to listen to the same 6 songs over the course of 3 months? Maybe it's a little more confusing as a musician and serious music listener. Personally I have a 40gb mp3 player, over 30 of those gigs taken up. I would go insane if my options were limited even in the slightest.
Re:Casual use by casual music fans (Score:4, Interesting)
I cant stand the country music stations of today for the same reason. They play a 20 song playlist over and over for sometimes 4 or 5 years. Only if a song breaks big or the star is big enough to have a payola racket going do they break that list.
I'm like you - when I listen to music, I do it all the way.
Re:Casual use by casual music fans (Score:4, Insightful)
That said, whenever I'm not cycling, I've got my playlist on random (actually, I've got a playlist of my least played songs rated 3 - 5 that's on random). I've got an iTrip, so I listen to it on the weekends when I drive around doing errands.
But anyway, there's lots of reasons to listen to a limited playlist.
social impact of personal devices in general... (Score:4, Insightful)
It used to be only doctors had pagers and cellphones. now every schmuck in the world has them and they use them all the time with total disregard for those around them.
screw reading the newspaper on my morning metro ride! I'm going to lsiten to my iPod and chat on AIM via my mobile phone!!
and people wonder why the younger generation gets stupider and stupider. It may have a lot to do with hippie pot smoking parents, but i think the widespread use of mind numbing electionic devices is more responsible.
they do make excellent substitutes for actually raising your kids though.
Re:social impact of personal devices in general... (Score:5, Insightful)
Now you finally know how your parents felt.
Re:social impact of personal devices in general... (Score:3, Insightful)
I dunno. "Dumber" is a tough thing to measure.
Different skill and knowledge set, certainly.
I can't work a slide rule or calculate a square root by hand. I can't repair much more than very simple problems with a car. In my parents' day, this wasn't the case. On the other hand, in my parents' day, people were griping about a tenancy to ignore authority, and (a bit later) drug use. In my *grandparents' day*, I suspect that people were
not quite on target (Score:5, Interesting)
This allows you an insight snippet into the strangers persona, and perhaps a serendipitous introduction to music you may otherwise never give a listen.
I hope his research isn't a hardwired fallback on his first such venture with the original WalkMan. Times and man change... If he simply changes the element of study, without being ready to change the methodology, he's ripe to miss the mark.
2M ipods/ 6G people = social imact? (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't know anyone who even has an iPod, but I know lots of people who have portable cd players, for instance - many of which can play mp3 discs. I did see an iPod in CompUSA, once.
I submit that the iPod hasn't had any meaningful social effect, but that digital music, in general, has had quite a bit of impact in popularizing [to joe shmo] the notion of intangible intellectual property.
Re:2M ipods/ 6G people = social imact? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:2M ipods/ 6G people = social imact? (Score:5, Funny)
social impact of people discussing social impacts (Score:5, Funny)
I don't mean to boast but I believe that I am one of only two researchers in this field. The other refuses to publish fearing that it may start more discussion of societal impact since the result of such discussions is mostly negative, at least according to his latest findings.
After three years of detailed questionaires and the use of various statistical models I have found that most people that discuss impacts of things on society fall into 4 categories.
Those that think the impact is negative, those that think the impact is positive, those that really don't think there was and impact at all, and finally by far the largest group is those that don't even know what you are talking about.
I have yet to find find any exceptions to this rule. Take any set of data points, the comments posted to this article for instance, and you will quickly see that each comment easily falls into one of the 4 categories.
Would anyone like to discuss the impact this research might have on their decision to make future posts to
http://www.palmone.com [palmone.com]
what a curious major (Score:3, Interesting)
I pod "naps" (Score:3, Interesting)
Stupid media hype... (Score:4, Insightful)
Ok so I don't own a iPod, I own a competeing product that's similar in size and capacity, and I only use it about an hour a day whenever I'm exercising. It's not attached to my head 24/7, and I don't understand how a simple mp3 player can have any impact on society. Cellphone sure, but mp3 player?
Re:Stupid media hype... (Score:3, Interesting)
Two easy steps:
* People like Apple, or at least want Microsoft to have competition. Macs were big in journalism and publishing for a lo
Re:Stupid media hype... (Score:3, Interesting)
Not true: it's smaller than any other HD player for it's capacity. The Rio Nitrus is smaller and nearly 1/4th the weight of the lightest iPod, but it only has a 1.5gig hard drive compared to iPod's 10+ gig.
"Compared to other HD based players? Christ have you seen those ugly fuckers?"
I have never understood why the appearance is so important: my hd based mp3 player (which shall remain anonymous) neve
Yo professah... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Obligatory DRM reference (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Obligatory DRM reference (Score:3, Informative)
The iPod is designed (IIRC) so that once you upload music to it, you can NEVER GET IT OFF. I know you can delete it, but I mean you can't copy those music files back off the iPod. There are many ways around
Re:Batteries change too? (Score:5, Informative)
Inside of warranty, you can send it back to Apple and have it replaced for free. Outside of warranty, you can have it replaced by Apple for $99 or you could do it yourself [ipodbattery.com] with a bit of technical know-how for less than half that price.
They're by no means meant to be "disposable".
Re:Batteries change too? (Score:4, Informative)
iPods are not 'throw away devices' by any means.
If your iPod's battery goes (there's a certain threshold for apple to take it back) within a year, they'll replace it. Two years if you buy iPod applecare.
If it goes and it's not under any sort of warrantee, you can pay apple $99 for a battery replacement. That's including everything. *Or* if you're savvy enough you can go online and order a do-it-yourself battery replacement for considerably cheaper.
Once again, this is not a 'throw away' issue.
RD
Re:Batteries change too? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Batteries change too? (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically it boils down to this: the iPod has a rechargable battery that lasts about a year. For some people, it lasts less, for others it lasts more. You can buy a replacement battery for between 50 and 100 dollars and either replace it yourself or have Apple do it for you.
Some people (generally these are the usual Apple bashing crowd) are crying fowl. "How can the evil Apple empire get away wi
Re:Batteries change too? (Score:2, Interesting)
Even worse, originally they wanted to charge like $250 to replace it...ie, iPod is disposable, because for $250 (in 18 months time, when the battery dies) you can get a better iPod with a new battery. See here [ipodsdirtysecret.com] for more. (WMA movie [sorry] + link to text info)
It's only the result of immense public pressure and a load [theregister.co.uk] of lawsuits [google.com.au] that have made Apple change their stance and give us a $99 replacement service.
I have an iPod myself and it
Re:Batteries change too? (Score:3, Insightful)
If it's under warranty, the battery replacement is free, so why would you want to crack it open yourself, anyways?
Re:Batteries change too? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Batteries change too? (Score:4, Informative)
Also, for what its worth, you can still buy the AppleCare warranty extension as long as you're under warranty (and possibly even if you're not, I'm not entirely sure). Given that the complaints that surface about the 3rd Gen battery were that it started really losing capacity at the 18-month mark, it might be worth it.
Re:Batteries change too? (Score:5, Informative)
If it's still under warranty, you should get the battery replaced for free under the warranty, and save yourself the $50 it costs for a new battery. If the warranty has expired, then it's a non-issue.
Re:Batteries change too? (Score:2)
Depends on how you cycle them. Basically, the controversy was the first wave of battery failures caused by those who bought theirs when they were first offered and weren't careful. That was (approximately) two years ago.
So, figure 2 years if you're not careful, probably 3-4 if you are.
Re:Bull (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What I'm Listening To While I Work (Score:3, Informative)
Actually work by Tom DiMarco and Timothy Lister [Peopleware] demonstrated that listening to music, destroys your creativity.
They tested this by setting developers a programming problem. Half in quiet, half with background music. All solved the programming problem.
However only those in the silent group noticed that there was a short-cut solution to the problem. None of those listening to music did.
The reason is, the bit of your brain that is creative is the same bit that listens to music, and it can't do