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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.'"
...very fitting for people who proclaim themselves the "world's leading expert on the social impact of personal stereo devices."
;)
I'm sure it's quite flattering to the elitist Apple snots, though.
Is he anything like Dr. Pepper? If so, I want to see his credentials.
EVERYDAY IS CATURDAY
Even Mr. T thinks you should buy one! And with advertisements like this one, all the fans of Dude, Wheres My Car will want one. Those two should take care of most of the US population, I'm sure.
True story.
Sounds like a load of Bull to me.
Half the people I've talked to so far download music illegally.
He must be new at this.
why yes... it causes the user to turn entirely black with white headphones showing.
The original generic sig.
Back in the 80s, I wanted to buy a Walkman, but I couldn't find one with OGG on it. Stupid closed-source fascists!
Dr. Bull's work reminds me of Sweden's social engineering efforts. How we use something, how far do we go to utilize the device(s), etc.
Dr. Bull says, "It gives people totally private worlds." While that may be true, it also removes people from social interaction, which is vital for mental health.
It's blue and it plays music real good. I walk around with it and listen to music. It's pretty.
Thank God there are scientists researching this shocking phenomenon.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"There's a lot of studies in the literature that demonstrate with the urban space, the more it's inhabited, the safer you feel. You feel safe if you can feel people there, but you don't want to interact with them."
When I use my iPod in public, I often realize that by avoiding that interaction, I may feel more 'safe' but I am also missing out. Usually I take my iPod headphones out when I'm in a situation where I could interact with people. I like my music, but I think the sense of security is very false.
Whether it's intuition or hard research, more often than not Apple gets it right. The other computer companies usually go for "good enough" and as cheap as they can make it, and that got them market share but not that much loyalty. Now that the computer companies are being forced by reduced margins into the consumer electronic space, they are going to be faced with a different mindset. People who buy electronic widgets do not say, "Hey, who cares if it's a beige box, I don't care what it looks like, I just want cheap!" Instead people want stereos and televisions and DVD players that have quality features and look good with the rest of their stuff. Low price works to some degree here, but high-end does quite well too.
Apple has been there all along. There's a reason Apple users tend to be loyal despite the occasional hiccups from Apple and historically higher margins: They get it right. And boy does that matter in the consumer electronic marketplace. For proof of that, just walk around any large city and count the iPods. They got it right.
What DRM on the ipod? As far as I've seen, the DRM is in iTunes, and only applies to music downloaded from the iTunes store. I've had no problem copying self-encoded music files from my machine at home, to my iPod, to my machine at work (all windows). The only hard part was finding the music on the iPod, but since I have "show hidden files/folders" enabled in Windows, it was pretty easy. The filenames are a little strange on the iPod, but if you tell iTunes to file your music away for you, it will happily rename the files and place them in appropriately-named folders.
Do you really need reason for beer? Wingman Brewers
'world's leading expert on the social impact of personal stereo devices,'
Wow... I'll bet that one was a highly-contendted for title....
User servicable in what sense?
Inside of warranty, you can send it back to Apple and have it replaced for free. Outside of warranty, you can have it replaced by Apple for $99 or you could do it yourself with a bit of technical know-how for less than half that price.
They're by no means meant to be "disposable".
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.
Sort of.
iPods are not 'throw away devices' by any means.
If your iPod's battery goes (there's a certain threshold for apple to take it back) within a year, they'll replace it. Two years if you buy iPod applecare.
If it goes and it's not under any sort of warrantee, you can pay apple $99 for a battery replacement. That's including everything. *Or* if you're savvy enough you can go online and order a do-it-yourself battery replacement for considerably cheaper.
Once again, this is not a 'throw away' issue.
RD
Social interaction is vital, but it's not all mentally healthy. I used to be a regular bus commuter, and I was forced to interact with all kinds of people on the bus and at the bus stop, many of whom were unpleasant to be forced into close proximity.
A good Walkman was *vital* for my mental health.
And when I was in college walking to/from class or wherever, a good walkman made the walk more enjoyable. It's not like I was going to have a social interaction with 99.9999% of the strangers I walked past in the first place.
Why are people suddenly questioning Professor iPod's, uh, I mean Dr Bull's credentials? I'm telling you, that guy is so misunderstood.
Just let go of your suspicion and paranoia and put your trust in someone for a change. What's the worst that can happen?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
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.
Under normal use, the battery has no problems. Under heavy usage situations, battery life can decline (as is also the case with most phones, PDAs, laptops, and anything else with a non-replacable lithium battery). Apple offers a battery-replacement service for $99, or you can do it yourself for half the price. Battery replacement is also covered by AppleCare. I fail to see where this is an issue,unless you think that Apple should wave a magic wand and create a perfect battery, or that iPods should be enlarged to make rare battery replacements more convenient.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
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
=====================
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?
I guess you must have been hiding out with Saddam Hussein since you missed the big flap over the iPod batteries.
Basically it boils down to this: the iPod has a rechargable battery that lasts about a year. For some people, it lasts less, for others it lasts more. You can buy a replacement battery for between 50 and 100 dollars and either replace it yourself or have Apple do it for you.
Some people (generally these are the usual Apple bashing crowd) are crying fowl. "How can the evil Apple empire get away with abusing its foolish customers!", they say. "Everyone should buy a Dell now!"
Apple engineered the iPod this way to get the size down. Get over it.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
They are user-serviceable, but I am fairly sure that it voids your warranty, which is crap.
If it's still under warranty, you should get the battery replaced for free under the warranty, and save yourself the $50 it costs for a new battery. If the warranty has expired, then it's a non-issue.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
I'd check out his seminal 8-Track: A New Social Order before jumping to conclusions.
As far as "social isolation" goes, the iPod is not really any different than any other personal stereo device made in the past 20 years. Long before I had an iPod, I had a personal cassette player, a personal radio, a personal CD player, and yes, even a Rio 500. The iPod is better in the sense that it stores my entire CD collection. That fact sells iPods, but doesn't change the social relationship of the device.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
It's not really personal now. I want a direct link into cranial nerve 8, the vestibulocochlear nerve!
-I am an elective eunuch.
Last week at BestBuy I found a CD player for $20.00 that reads MP3 files on CD-Rs and CD-RWs.
I got one and it plays my 15 cent CD-Rs with ten hours of music just fine. (although slow to start MP3 disks).
I had to replace to weird AC adapter connector though, because it was impossible to find a cheap AC adapter that fit the custom connector on it.
iPod's battery isn't user-serviceable if you want to keep your warranty.
Even worse, originally they wanted to charge like $250 to replace it...ie, iPod is disposable, because for $250 (in 18 months time, when the battery dies) you can get a better iPod with a new battery. See here for more. (WMA movie [sorry] + link to text info)
It's only the result of immense public pressure and a load of lawsuits that have made Apple change their stance and give us a $99 replacement service.
I have an iPod myself and it gets 2-5 hours of use a day (at work mostly) and I'm pretty worried about the battery - Aus$670 is a lot of money for us students.
Don't get me wrong, it's totally sweet to use and it has changed the way I listen to music (of course, don't trust me, I'm hardly Dr. iPod), but if I'm paying US$99 to get the battery changed in 18 months I will be mighty pissed.
~ Tim
iPod's battery isn't user-serviceable if you want to keep your warranty.
If it's under warranty, the battery replacement is free, so why would you want to crack it open yourself, anyways?
I recall that the big selling point of slashdot subscriptions was that you got to see articles before they were posted to the public.
Looks like I got the same deal with my Wired subscription!
microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
Hmm. Good point. I have to admit I didn't think about that. That said, if yours and Apple's definition of "dead battery" is different, you may have trouble. Also, if my battery is dead after 13 months (I bought mine before the extended warranty program), I still won't be happy. Point taken however.
Please enlighten me, what's so different between an iPod and Discman, MD player or a shitty RCA mp3 player from RadioShak ? We get all those articles about how iPod changes social relationships and such. Take the article about some people plugging their headphones into other people's iPods. What is so different about iPod that it deserves that much attention and an article ? I am sure many people did that before iPod, in the era of MD player and Discman. Now this article. What is the point here ? That iPod is somehow special and turns people into musicheads ? How is that different than me listening to $10 AM/FM radio on the bus ? Bullshit I say.
I punched a baby once.
Bull: Right. In terms of usage, Apple got it intuitively right. People use (the iPod) as an alarm clock, and when they listen to it at night, they like the fact it can turn itself off...
My God, those Apple engineers are geniuses!
Let's see, I don't have an iPod, but my portable MD player can turn itself off. My $30 cassette player can turn itself off. The Sony radio-cassette player we had in our house thirty years ago could turn itself off.
In fact, that old Sony could even turn the radio off. With a tape playing, you could turn the radio on (which would override the sound from the tape), and when it got to the end of the tape, both the tape and the radio would shut off.
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 was not being racist. He is referring to the iPod TV commercials where the dancers are silhouettes.
it's not so often i come across people singing in the pubs anymore. old fellows, sure, but it's not so wide spread. Playing instruments, reading, even real conversations are being sweapt aside for game boy, iPod, and mobile phones.
It used to be only doctors had pagers and cellphones. now every schmuck in the world has them and they use them all the time with total disregard for those around them.
screw reading the newspaper on my morning metro ride! I'm going to lsiten to my iPod and chat on AIM via my mobile phone!!
and people wonder why the younger generation gets stupider and stupider. It may have a lot to do with hippie pot smoking parents, but i think the widespread use of mind numbing electionic devices is more responsible.
they do make excellent substitutes for actually raising your kids though.
The iPod is designed (IIRC) so that once you upload music to it, you can NEVER GET IT OFF. I know you can delete it, but I mean you can't copy those music files back off the iPod. There are many ways around this (some of them very simple) but it's still a form of DRM. That said, it limits people's iPod usability like putting a piece of tape on someone's ankle prevents them from walking. It doesn't effec the device's use for 99% of people.
What you mentioned was one way around it, but I think on the Mac you actually can't get around it (not without 3rd party programs or something like that. Thank goodness for Windows security holes?).
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
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.
This guy's got hit the nail right on the head. Mind you, i've seen a couple people with them, most of the time, this is based on assumptions, just because I see the white headphones. I also know 2 people who own them. However, I see at least 1/3 of people in the 16-30 age bracket with some form of personal music device. 80% of them are CD players. And nobody goes on and raves about the social impacts of these things.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Apple defines "dead battery" as "holds less than 50% of its original charge" according to this.
Also, for what its worth, you can still buy the AppleCare warranty extension as long as you're under warranty (and possibly even if you're not, I'm not entirely sure). Given that the complaints that surface about the 3rd Gen battery were that it started really losing capacity at the 18-month mark, it might be worth it.
I don't know anyone who even has an iPod, but I know lots of people who have portable cd players, for instance - many of which can play mp3 discs. I did see an iPod in CompUSA, once.
I submit that the iPod hasn't had any meaningful social effect, but that digital music, in general, has had quite a bit of impact in popularizing [to joe shmo] the notion of intangible intellectual property.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Just in case you are not being sarcastic or trolling, the grandparent of your post tells you how to do it in Windows (simply enable "show hidden files and folders").
On Macs, you can use the Terminal application and copy the files in one line, then import to iTunes (or whatever you use). And for both platforms you find freeware that does this for you without getting technical.
I don't mean to boast but I believe that I am one of only two researchers in this field. The other refuses to publish fearing that it may start more discussion of societal impact since the result of such discussions is mostly negative, at least according to his latest findings.
After three years of detailed questionaires and the use of various statistical models I have found that most people that discuss impacts of things on society fall into 4 categories.
Those that think the impact is negative, those that think the impact is positive, those that really don't think there was and impact at all, and finally by far the largest group is those that don't even know what you are talking about.
I have yet to find find any exceptions to this rule. Take any set of data points, the comments posted to this article for instance, and you will quickly see that each comment easily falls into one of the 4 categories.
Would anyone like to discuss the impact this research might have on their decision to make future posts to
http://www.palmone.com
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
Actually, the "weird" file system format on the iPod is actually a database. It allows the iPod to avoid having to scan the entire hard drive for playable media every time it starts up, and saves a lot of battery life.
Do you really need reason for beer? Wingman Brewers
You didn't get the reference. Dumbass.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Target had the 10GB 3G Ipod for 150$, on clearance. Went like hot-cakes. Check at a Target near you!!
Good thing you didn't tell them it was $400!!
So let's see, I got a 10GB portable hdd + mp3 player for 150$ (7.5 times what you paid), 10GB/800MB = 12.5 times the capacity, along with tremendous extra functionality.
All bow to his Noodliness!! His Noodle Appendage has touched me!
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.
Ok so I don't own a iPod, I own a competeing product that's similar in size and capacity, and I only use it about an hour a day whenever I'm exercising. It's not attached to my head 24/7, and I don't understand how a simple mp3 player can have any impact on society. Cellphone sure, but mp3 player?
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
It's OK. Feel the pain of that trauma. This is Slashdot. You can cry here.
If the iPod is the treasure chest for the online music pirate's treasure, then does that mean this guy is actually Professor Booty?
The Independent: Reverend Spooner Arrested in Friar Tuck Incident - ISIHAC, Historical Headlines
This is plain and simple rubbish. I would rather listen to music in the car any day rather than some personal audio device. "Better" should be relaced with "more flexible" and then this would read true.
Music is about interaction. The most enjoyable moments when listening to music are usually the times when you are alone with it. Body movements come out easily as a reaction to your enjoyment. This can be done in the car but if you are doing it on the train most people are just going to look at you real funny (and perhaps point and laugh). The car also offers decent audio quality where you can feel the music rather than simply hear it.
Even though an ipod like device certainly makes my comute and other mindless boring moments far more enjoyable, its is far from my most enjoyable moments listening to music. I usually get home and put the same song I was listening to on the my 'real' stereo. Only then can I really enjoy it.
Actually work by Tom DiMarco and Timothy Lister [Peopleware] demonstrated that listening to music, destroys your creativity.
They tested this by setting developers a programming problem. Half in quiet, half with background music. All solved the programming problem.
However only those in the silent group noticed that there was a short-cut solution to the problem. None of those listening to music did.
The reason is, the bit of your brain that is creative is the same bit that listens to music, and it can't do both.
Edward
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
Having been a supporter of mp3 players for a while, I previously had the first Rio available, then went to mp3cd, had the first mp3cd available, then went with another mp3cd player.. and recently just got the iPod.
I by far like the iPod the best out of any of them. Firewire interface is great, was able to fill 15 gb within a couple of minutes.. I've found myself now listening to it on the way to my car, while folding laundry, in my car with iTrip FM broadcaster.. The size of the actual device, the ease of use of the interface and buttons, the large storage capacity, are all amazing.. battery life is enough to get me through a full day of work to.
rule of thumb: you should pay about the same for your stereo
system as you pay your whole music collection.
example: say you've the kind of person who's only bought 10 CDs.
at ~CDN$15/each, that's about $150 - so you shouldn't buy a stereo
worth more than about $150 - a cheap gheto blaster will do you fine.
on the other hand -- say you're the kind of person who's really
into music, and you've bought yourself about 300 - 400 CDs - at the
same rate, that's about $4500 - so you shouldn't feel bad about going
out and getting yourself the high-end LINN stereo system to listen to
them on, since you're probably also the kind of person who's going
to appreciate that kind of system.
if you're in the middle -- say you've got a modest collection of about
30-50 CDs - at ~$15/each -- well then the cost of an ipod would about
match that, and you'd be in the right range to be buying such a device.
the cost of the player shoud roughly equal the cost of your collection.
regards,
johnrpenner.