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Professor iPod Discusses Device's Social Impact
PurdueGraphicsMan writes "There's an interesting story over at Wired News, involving an interview with UK university professor Dr. Michael Bull, apparently the 'world's leading expert on the social impact of personal stereo devices,' according to The New York Times. The piece also mentions: 'Bull, a lecturer in media and culture at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, is the author of 'Sounding out the City: Personal Stereos and the Management of Everyday Life', a book Bull calls the 'definitive treatment' of the impact of the Sony Walkman and its descendants.'"
I think he makes a point when he says that there is some music that is personal, which you claim as your own for listening. As a listener of different genres of music, with a strong experimental streak, I prefer the option of not subjecting my room-mates to my experiments. The music we share is different from what I listen to on my own. Being not from the US (I'm Indian, as in a brown one), I really can't expect my hindi song-fan friends to share my enthusiasm for Chemical Brothers or Fatboy Slim.
This man has used computers to teach for a long time.. He used to make hypercard stacks with his students, to store key cases and biographical information of justices.
More recently, he's made oyez.org, where users can listen to oral arguments on all these Supreme Court cases that get argued over on /.!
Jerry Goldman got his picture in the NY Times holding his iPod, and he was thinking about its teaching potential way before it was the hip/ubiquitous gadget on campus.
What a great guy. Best thing is, he sends out syllabi in PDF, unlike the idiot PhDs who use Word docs, which bothers me because I'm using an ancient linux laptop.
Cultural Studies is very particular in the UK compared to the US version. Also Cultural Studies is more dominant than it's US counterpart.
As a discipline it is well respected in it's theoretical break from English Literature. I.e. we can have TV and radio and internet. "Pop culture" not just shakespeare and opera of high brow snobbery. An interesting discipline to say the least. The problem that many slashdotters might have with it is that it is not "scientific" and is overly concerned with aesthetics rather than politics.
This problem is solved, in part, but Media Studies which is in turn a break from Cultural Studies. Media Studies not only views the aesthetic and popular culture, it examines the way in which media operate as political constructs. It also doesn't deny the possibiliy of "research" and could best be described as Cultural Studies meets Sociology meets Politics. Politics is given preference over "art", because if art is political then one can't view it in the abstract right? So "media studies" isn't some weak Public Relations wannabe cop-out subject - it is the end-point of a massive evolution from English Literature to a more relevant and theoretically grounded area in which social research can be conducted, albeit with much time devoted to questions of research in and of itself (i.e. theory, qualitative and quantitative debates).
In other words Media Studies is something worth checking out in the liberal arts because it encompasses philosophy, politics, pop culture and studies of power all inside a carefully crafted approach to pragmatic research.
Notes on "philosophy" vs Media and Cultural Studies
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You will find many high brow philosophy ppl looking down on cultural studies and criticising it. But the basic difference between the two that I will put here is --- philosophy assumes the operation of logic is "given" and aspires to "truth". Whereas cultural studies says there is language, but that language is inherently unstable and therefore we cannot rely on it as a 100% pure form of communication. Cultural Studies also critically reflects on what is considered "logic".
In other words in philosophy some things are "out of bounds" and in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory they are not --- who then is being more intellectually rigorous? Also there is little to no teaching of 20th century "postmodernism" in Philosophy departments, whereas in Cultural Studies we welcome all of the philosphical tradition and there are no "right" answers to these debates (as they are ongoing debates, how could there be a right answer just yet - if ever).... Again, who is being more rigorous and who is excluding things?
Auto-mind-control. That is friggin' sad.
There's nothing wrong with "auto-mind-control"; in fact it may be one of the gems of evolution. We all practice self-mind-control all day long, directing our thoughts to what it most important, monitoring our progress and allocating mental resources. We also do things like drink caffeine to self-regulate our arousal and some practice meditation to affect their mental functioning. I certainly use music to either help me focus on my work when its time to do that or to help me forget it when its time for that. Thank goodness for the prefrontal cortex!
I find this completely inane. Why would people buy such an expensive device if they're only going to listen to the same 6 songs over the course of 3 months? Maybe it's a little more confusing as a musician and serious music listener. Personally I have a 40gb mp3 player, over 30 of those gigs taken up. I would go insane if my options were limited even in the slightest.
He mentions that he found that people want to control their space, and not share the 'personal' music on their iPod, yet he has yet to identify the new aspect of personal music sharing known as 'iPod mugging', where you share your headphones with strangers and they share theirs with you.
This allows you an insight snippet into the strangers persona, and perhaps a serendipitous introduction to music you may otherwise never give a listen.
I hope his research isn't a hardwired fallback on his first such venture with the original WalkMan. Times and man change... If he simply changes the element of study, without being ready to change the methodology, he's ripe to miss the mark.
I bought the iPod as a personal stereo and as a backup device, so that it would be easy and painless for me to do backups, to a device I was unlikely to forget to take with me.
...
It's a great backup device, and it's a great personal stereo.
I stopped using my iPod outside of the car when I realized that I was feeling a lot less grounded in the real world than I'd been before. I realized that I was closing myself out from interactions with other people. As a nerd, I have too few of those in any event, so I recognized the unit as a gant step backwards.
However, it's great in the car, and I can't wait until I get an iPod compatible car stereo so I don't need to wear those awful earbuds.
Oddly enough, until that time, I've actually wound up using it more as an audio source for my home stereo. It works great there too, and I don't have to bother with earbuds. I suspect that will be its primary use until I get a car stereo compatible with it.
Leaving it at home ruins it as a disaster recovery backup, though, which is a bummer
D
UK university professor Dr. Michael Bull, apparently the 'world's leading expert on the social impact of personal stereo devices' I also wonder about Professor iPod's credentials, like where he got them, and how he got them. Is there a lot of reading on this subject? That's like saying "I'm a hippo psychologist"
If it hurts, don't do it
The biggest thing that has affected me with the ipod is to take "ipod naps" while say in line or waiting. I don't want to listen to it all the time for saftey reasons. For instance once or twice I became so lost in thought then when I finally snapped too I was suprised that I missed an important announcement, bus, subway, or approaching car. But say I'm waiting for a plane and I know that I'm not going to miss anything for the next 10 min or so. And say I'm hungover. Then the situation calls for "God send death" by slayer. A quick 5 min "ipod nap". Then say I'm waiting for lunch break to finish (or waiting for lunch break to begin) then I might listen to another song. Whatever fits my mood at the second. I think the article misses the fact that your have 2500 songs or so at your disposal. And at any second - if nothing is going on- you can select the song that most matches your mood.