Have you ever tried to grab someone’s attention while they were watching a TV show? How about in the middle of writing an e-mail, or worse yet, listening to an iPod?
Personal music players are one of many new technological devices leading us down the depressing road of isolation. Like living in your own movie with a personal soundtrack, MP3 players erect a barrier between the user and the rest of the world. More importantly, they have redefined how we think about community, public space and person-to-person contact.
Although sometimes escaping in a personal bubble of one’s favorite tunes can be comforting, we cannot allow our disconnection with the outside world to escalate to a disastrous level.
Music has become an intimate personal experience, but we must remain aware of our surroundings, for the sake of others as well as personal safety. Blocking out the sounds of the natural world can be pleasurable, but may cause problems if you fail to hear that bus screech by, or that stranger who has followed you to your car. If you do decide to don those infamous white earphones, you should keep a few things in mind.
Some find if disrespectful when an MP3 listener, whom they are conversing with, deems them only worthy enough to remove one earpiece. Or worse, none at all.
Be conscious of your iPod use. How often, when, and where you listen to your tunes can often become so instinctive that you may forget how it affects your interactions with other people.
More problematic, perhaps, is how it appears as if urban space has become so uncomfortable that people would choose to remain unbothered by their fellow citizens. Like a cellphone, personal music players have become a ubiquitous symbol that a person is otherwise engaged—perfect for those who want to head out in public ensuring others won’t talk to them, but not great for the health of the community at large.
Communities are built through random incidental contact, much of which is prevented when a person fails to remove their earphones when, say, paying for groceries. iPods are breeding a generation who will be as selective about their social lives as the songs they listen to, and although it’s nice to have a bubble to escape to now and then, with pervasive use it could severely affect the way communities grow and are shaped.
Although communication technology is allowing us more opportunities to stay connected, in another sense it’s making us less social. The prospect of avoiding unwanted random interactions may be appealing in certain situations, but we must understand the isolation that is created and the implications that this isolation may have on the future of our relationships and local communities..
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