In the hallway, the elevator, the stairwell, class, the library, the UC, at the swimming pool, the IM fields, Charties, the food court, on the way to class and even in the bathroom- everywhere you look you see the same thing. No, it’s not porn because that would be a horrible thing. It is the iPod. They are taking over our school. The little MP3 player that has taken the world by storm was so popular last holiday season that they actually ran out. What about this little thing that plays music makes it so popular?
This question drives me nuts every time I see a friend pass by, and I have to scream their name to get their attention, or simply when I am walking to class and hear music blaring from someone’s head. I started to look into it, just to see if maybe I missed something. Every person I asked about the iPod have had a very similar response: “To listen to music…” Well that seems simple enough, but it wasn’t good enough for me. First of all I don’t understand why people need so much music. My roommate who listens to music all the time and has thousands of songs on his computer said, “I have my music in my room, I have my music in my car. It isn’t necessary to listen to music from my room to my car.” OK, so you “need” your music but do you have to pay between $250 and $400 for it? My co-worker has a CD player in his bag; he makes his own CD mixes and listens to them on the way to class. Apparently his CD player serves the same purpose as the iPod, but it cost five times less.
There is the issue of size and the way it is used. Sure, the iPod is more convenient. You don’t have to worry about those stupid CDs; iPods are also a lot smaller than the CD player and it holds a lot more songs. That’s fine; I can handle all those reasons. I still have other problems. For one I have a PDA-it has an MP3 player built in. I also can keep my schedule with it, take pictures with it and even use the internet, but it only cost $300. So you say you don’t want all those other features and you just want space for music. That’s fine; Bestbuy.com has the Rio Karma 20.0GB Digital Audio Player, which has the same amount of space as the $300 iPod for less then $200.
In conclusion there is only one reason to buy an iPod. The materialistic views of our society that is incredibly apparent on this campus. I can see no other reason to have one, and especially to walk around with it in hand just to show it off. There are plenty of other much cheaper options out there, but I guess they just aren’t as cool.
Justin Diamond can be contacted at j.diamond@umiami.edu.