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A whistle stop tour through ipod-land! Which swerved between the normal and the ridiculous throughout. Check out the juror sacked for listening to her ipod under her hijab. And the sailor taken hostage that 'cried like a baby' when his ipod was confiscated!!
My own view is that ipods do cut us off from one another - but then maybe they take us to a different place. Commuters have ignored each other on trains forever - i know, i have been there!!!
Great points Amanda. I know that some people hate the idea of having earplugs in their ears and that this gives them the heebie jeebies. Others have earphones practically permanently fixed to their lugholes! (I see that in classrooms all the time.) It is an interesting argument, perhaps not a new one, but we listen to things differently nowadays, we use a 'phone differently and in essence we communicate differently. That said, the idea of a good old fashioned natter is here to stay...but perhaps we do that differently too nowadays!
Today, as I sat on the 34 going home, the annoying bass noise pumping out from another traveller's headphones was so annoying I actually decided to put my own headphones on just to drown out the infernal noise. On Gorgie Road, after untangling the wire that had somehow wrapped itself around my necklace, I suddenly thought that apart from the fact that I had clearly caught the wrong bus, maybe it's the choice of music that one chooses to listen to that marks the difference between anti-social behaviour and escapism? I'm certainly not averse to listening to the droning, thumping beats of certain styles of music, but in the right place. I choose to listen to muted classical music which I assume can't be heard as I don't get "the looks" from others and people choose to speak to me despite the presence of the earphones. Either that or while I listen to the eternally upbeat music of Spain and Latin America I sit with such a stupid grin on my face that it's hard not to want to speak to me!
I occasionally listen to music on the bus to alleviate boredom as people don't really 'do' conversations any more, but sometimes, just sometimes, it's solely to take my mind off the smelly man that inevitably sits directly downwind of me and makes me gag!
A whistle stop tour through ipod-land! Which swerved between the normal and the ridiculous throughout. Check out the juror sacked for listening to her ipod under her hijab. And the sailor taken hostage that 'cried like a baby' when his ipod was confiscated!!
ReplyDeleteMy own view is that ipods do cut us off from one another - but then maybe they take us to a different place. Commuters have ignored each other on trains forever - i know, i have been there!!!
Great points Amanda. I know that some people hate the idea of having earplugs in their ears and that this gives them the heebie jeebies. Others have earphones practically permanently fixed to their lugholes! (I see that in classrooms all the time.) It is an interesting argument, perhaps not a new one, but we listen to things differently nowadays, we use a 'phone differently and in essence we communicate differently. That said, the idea of a good old fashioned natter is here to stay...but perhaps we do that differently too nowadays!
ReplyDeleteToday, as I sat on the 34 going home, the annoying bass noise pumping out from another traveller's headphones was so annoying I actually decided to put my own headphones on just to drown out the infernal noise. On Gorgie Road, after untangling the wire that had somehow wrapped itself around my necklace, I suddenly thought that apart from the fact that I had clearly caught the wrong bus, maybe it's the choice of music that one chooses to listen to that marks the difference between anti-social behaviour and escapism? I'm certainly not averse to listening to the droning, thumping beats of certain styles of music, but in the right place. I choose to listen to muted classical music which I assume can't be heard as I don't get "the looks" from others and people choose to speak to me despite the presence of the earphones. Either that or while I listen to the eternally upbeat music of Spain and Latin America I sit with such a stupid grin on my face that it's hard not to want to speak to me!
ReplyDeleteI occasionally listen to music on the bus to alleviate boredom as people don't really 'do' conversations any more, but sometimes, just sometimes, it's solely to take my mind off the smelly man that inevitably sits directly downwind of me and makes me gag!