Happy birthday iPod.
Since the birth of the iPod Oct. 23, 2001, this technology has fundamentally changed the way we buy and experience music.
In five short years, iPod ownership became both a trend and a status symbol for middle-class college and high school students across the country.
Today, it would be near-impossible to walk down Commonwealth Avenue without seeing students donning little, white earbuds.
For many, the iPod offers a way to escape reality and compose a personal soundtrack to life. But at what expense?
For previous generations, music was, by nature, a shared experience. If a baby boomer was asked how they listened to music, many would tell tales of rocking-out in their parents’ basements to the newest Bob Dylan record — with friends.
Even with the inception of the CD Walkman in the late 1990’s, music-listeners weren’t completely cut off from the outside world. Big headphones made it easy to spot someone listening to music, and having to carry CD’s made it impractical to lug the Walkman everywhere.
The iPod changed this with its never-ending stream of music. And today, members of Generation Y aren’t likely to remove their earbuds any time soon and even less inclined to share what’s playing on their playlist.
But it would be wrong to think the iPod was solely responsible for America’s youth becoming more alienated. In fact, this trend started long ago with online multiplayer video games and instant messaging.
In truth, the Apple Corporation has been profiting from this social disconnect and tapped into our generation’s growing desire to shut itself out from the rest of the world.
Apple, in essence, ingeniously targeted a generation more isolated than any other in modern history.
Furthermore, the iPod’s seemingly overnight success represents a marvel in modern marketing.
The iPod — advertised as an ultra-trendy, must-have device — makes listening to music less about songs and more about the style.
Our iPod playlists, we’re told, define who we are.
And with the iPod came a new business model for the music industry. While album sales have steadily declined since the Napster days, Apple has once again made music profitable. Now a 99-cent song is just a mouse click away.
In five years, we have witnessed a revolution not only in the way people listen to music, but in the way they interact with the world.
And while the iPod didn’t start this revolution, with each spin of the scroll wheel our generation moves closer to drowning out reality.