i Won't even mention Christmas shopping in this post, but a recent perusing through a Sharper Image catalog, a Crutchfield catalog, and a SkyMall catalog made me realize that our world is becoming iEverything. iT's very annoying, isn't iT? Do we really need to have our music with us 24 hours a day and an iPod to show others how cool we are? (Well, I have a Creative Labs Zen mp3 player so I'm not that stylish). Sure, we all like to listen to music we like, but how about listening to the radio or even satellite radio to see what other people are listening to? How about hearing new music and not having every song we hear be one that we already know?
Wrapsol: Clear Protection for your iPhone or other Mobile Device.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Because iPods have become so prevalent, every other electronics device lets you plug your iPod iNto iT. Everything from a car stereo to a clock radio to a docking speaker system to a massage chair. Maybe it's a conspiracy to get us to buy 10 iPods a piece so that we can have one hooked up to every other electronic device we own. I referred to this in one of my earlier posts, but as an audiophile wannabe, one of my major issues with iPods is that they encourage the recording of compressed music so that we can each jam tens of thousands of songs iNto our little iPod or other mp3 players. Compressed files don't have the sound quality that the original CD's have. This made me think of a quote...
"Listening to compressed music is like observing fine art with blurry vision."
To me, this statement is accurate. With compressed music on iPods, listened to via headphones, we are missing out on the fine details of the music like the singer taking a breath, the guitar player tapping the guitar for rhythm or strumming in a way that brings about a subtle extra noise that lends realism to the listening experience. I wish some of these iPod fanatics would take some time to go to a stereo store and hear what they're missing. Perhaps then they'll understand that music is also about quality, not just quantity. I must say that the iNfiltration of our culture with iPodishness is getting a bit out of hand. iT must be iNterrupted.
+ Atul
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