The iPod Culture

Over the past couple of years, the iPod popularity has skyrocketed. Accompanying its popularity, the iPod has trigged different versions, colors, accessories, and even revolutionized Apple. But getting back to the iPod, almost everywhere you turn it seems that at least someone has an iPod, mini, nano, video, phone, touch...You name it, it's probably some sort of iPod. And so it is easy to say that the iPod has become a part of our culture. Whether it be a good or bad culture is open to interpretation.

I guess you could view the iPod "culture" as a good thing. No more toting around a bulky CD player or having an overflowing drawer filled with hundreds of CDs. Now thousands of songs are literally in the palm of your hand. You could also say that it is a good source of entertainment and that it is easier to keep up with new music. But you could also see this iPod culture as a bad thing. Everyone now becoming shut off from the world; communication is replaced with the blast of music and silence that occurs one too many times now. It is also much easier to pirate music off the internet because you can put it straight into your iPod and not worry about burning it to a CD. 

But who knows. All I can say is good or bad, the iPod has inevitably become part of our culture and if not the phenomenon has created its own culture. As everyone sticks the small white headphones into his/her ears, the iPod is pushing music technology further and further.

Identity

Since we were talking about identity in class today, I thought of a poem by Robert Frost.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

I realized when I first thought about this poem that it had to do a lot with choice and not so much about identity. But then I thought about choice a bit more. When I actually thought about choices that I have made, I believed (and believe) that choice is a a significant part of identity, or at least my identity. If I think about certain choices that I have made in my life, I can pick out a lot of what I believe is my identity. For example, when I was three, I chose to become a dancer. From that age until twelve years later I continued dancing and being a dancer was a huge part of who I was. Another example of this is simply the choices I make on a daily basis. I choose to drink coffee in the morning, work hard in school and sports, and be humorous around my friends. These choices almost become unconscious because they are everyday routines. But they still define a big part of who I am and I strongly believe that the choices people make define them. This is not to say there are no other contributing factors to identity, but now that I think about it, my identity is the choices I make.