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February 11, 2005
In the network
via Alex Halavais
In the Detroit News Lifestyle section, January 31, 2005, there is an article by Kimberly Hayes Taylor on iPods: iPods set off iMania.
Such niches -- incomprehensible to the uninitiated, especially the technophobic -- lead to a basic question: Are iPod people sort of weird?"Yes," Halavais says. "The iPod people are also serious Macintosh people. That's already a cult.
"They were weird already. Once they built them in a little white case they could carry around and wear like jewelry, people say, 'I have to have them.' That's the social part of them. They are in the network." (my emphasis)
First, let me admit, I didn't realize people who played music with an iPod were called "iPod people," and I also didn't know this label could be used as a perjorative.
This wearing of technology and the distinctive white ear buds and tangly white lines disappearing into a pocket marks a person as being "in the network." What network? Mac lovers, iPod people, music lovers, ... Halavais says they are "serious Macintosh people. That's already a cult." If iPods go mainstream, would they still be as popular with Mac people? Or, will there be a revolt as the article hints at?
From all of the accessories an iPod person could get, this reminds me of when the Palm was first released. This wave feels bigger than the one with Palm. Now it seems some Palm users are moving away from technology to a Hipster PDA. Not being "in the network" on this iPod craze, I'm not sure what it could spawn next. It doesn't seem likely to me that it would spawn something less technical, but perhaps something more techie or musical?
The socially insulating aspects of wearing an iPod do concern me. As Douglas Raybeck, a professor of anthropology at Hamilton College in New York, points out: "They isolate us," he says of iPods. "More accurately, they insulate us." I think they do both depending on whether one is using or observing. This is really problematic, for I think we already spend far too little time talking with people we don't know. Taking down time and talking with strangers is worthwhile. Being female and riding a motorcycle alone has given me the opportunity to interact with a lot of people that I don't know. When I stop for gas or food, strangers are always coming up to me to chat. One of the things I've learned from this is that there are a lot of really nice and very helpful people in the world. Do iPod people get a similar kind of social charge from simply seeing another person with an iPod?
In addition to the social concerns, there are also financial concerns as well. There are some people that are spending thousands of dollars on music. So in addition to this being a "shop-alcoholic" tendency for some, I worry that personal music consumption is going to leave many in perpetual credit card debt.
I don't own an iPod. Sure, I would like to be able to play more music from different groups, but it seems to me that there are exorbinate time, social, and financial costs to pay as a result that might indeed outstrip the gains. There are many costs to being "in the network" on this one. And it's one more example of increasing passivity -- from passive TV viewing, to passive music listening, to ...?
I've rambled on in this post, but to bring it back around -- as rhetoricians in the network, what are our responsibilities to ourselves and to our students? Should we encourage passive technology consumption (if that is what you want to label it), should we embrace technology as a learning tool, and/or should we question what it's doing to us as a culture to be "in the network?"
Posted by mhansen at February 11, 2005 10:46 AM
Comments
I edited this entry to remove the funny centering that MT was doing. I removed extra space before the blockquote and used one simple return after the closing blockquote tag.
I tried to do a trackback ping on Alex Halavais's entry with this URL: http://alex.halavais.net/news/wp-trackback.php/1026
but, it didn't work. I copied the trackback URL above into the little URLs to ping box in MT, and then clicked save. After trying to ping his site, MT gave me an error message.
I'm having similar problems over on my site with Haloscan and I don't know why that is happening either.
FYI...the permalink for Halavais's entry is here:
http://alex.halavais.net/news/index.php?p=1026
If anyone knows what I am doing wrong, (and can help me with my network literacy), please let me know.
Posted by: Marcia at February 11, 2005 01:32 PM
I wonder if iPod is going to become ubiquitous, like ordering a "Coke" instead of ordering a softdrink.
Anyway, the first thing I thought when I read iPod People was "pod people" from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
This is a really cool discussion you are bringing forward here. I'm thinking that it depends on how we use the technology as to whether or not it isolates us. However, I'm struck by the more profound implication that there seems to be a push to conflate where we get information from with how we are using that information. Just because I populate an iPod from the Network doesn't mean I'm networking. It can be a very isolated proceedure, and probably often is.
Tyratae and I were discussing what the difference between iPods and compilation tapes played on a Walkman is. Scale seems to be the major one.
Also, if we add to this thread the current idea from Napster (I think?) to rent music that can only be played on approved mp3 players under the theory that the people using iPods don't want to own the music, but just borrow it for awhile, we get a really bizarre picture of just how fragmentary iPod culture can get. As the theory goes, playlists are in constant flux and when we get bored of a song, we just replace it with another selection. It re-emphasizes the disposable culture ethic, and the implications for networks seem pretty drastic because nothing is permanent or stable. It begs the questions, how do we then make connections and, assuming we can, what do they look like?
Posted by: TR at February 13, 2005 09:38 PM