Everybody, Please Shut Up

To shut the world around us up...that's the use of an iPod. When all we want to do is relax and not hear anyone but our favorite artists, we put on the tiny ear buds or humongous headphones and drown out reality. You can see it either as blocking your own thoughts, but I think of it more as keeping my thoughts in. The tiny, purple 3.6" x 1.5" device that's usually in my pocket holds more than just music. If it could record what I was thinking, it would need more gigabytes. The simplicity of ear buds is that you could easily pull them out of your ears when someone taps you back to reality, or if you just want to take a break from it just press pause. If someone calls your name...well how would you know? The tiny, "boredom-preventer" has entertained me for almost five years now and I plan to update the little bugger as it starts to wear itself out.

I have my iPod on wherever I am; walking to class, walking from class to class, walking from class to lunch with friends, walking from lunch to class, from class to my room…break…then back to my ears whenever I go and run or exercise or just take a walk outside. My iPod is on always if I am not inside. Why? Am I afraid to think about all that I would think if I didn’t have anything to occupy my brain? I can’t just listen to the birds chirp or cars drive by like I used to, now it sounds weird to me if I don’t have some sort of music reeling in my mind. I’ve become obsessed with my iPod, and it all started when I got my first iPod after high school graduation- I was never without one since then.

So I was literally devastated when I forgot my iPod at home this past week…I had to wait until I got home for the weekend to get it- thankfully it’s here with me now but do you know what I had to do this past week to get to class without silence? - Put some songs on my phone and blast it as I walked. Yup. Whoever I passed by, found out a little bit about me if they listened. Whatever, it was nice listening to music coming from the air basically (it was on speaker in my pocket), not just inside my head. It kept me occupied none-the-less and it allowed me to listen to my songs.

Apple has given in to what people want…for us to be in our own worlds when we want. We could drown out the voices of others calling us; our moms telling us to clean, our siblings annoying “the- you- know- what” out of us, and all the other people you just want to zone out on. People love music, and Apple knows that. So the Geniuses make devices that give us what we want, while making millions and feeding off of us. Still, if we pay for a place to get away to, why wouldn’t we be treated as cash cows?