Interesting article by Andrew Sullivan

[B0S0X87]

Not so much political as sociological. He makes some very good points.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-1491500_1,00.html

"I was visiting New York last week and noticed something I’d never thought I’d say about the city. Yes, nightlife is pretty much dead (and I’m in no way the first to notice that). But daylife — that insane mishmash of yells, chatter, clatter, hustle and chutzpah that makes New York the urban equivalent of methamphetamine — was also a little different. It was quieter.
Manhattan’s downtown is now a Disney-like string of malls, riverside parks and pretty upper-middle-class villages. But there was something else. And as I looked across the throngs on the pavements, I began to see why.

There were little white wires hanging down from their ears, or tucked into pockets, purses or jackets. The eyes were a little vacant. Each was in his or her own musical world, walking to their soundtrack, stars in their own music video, almost oblivious to the world around them. These are the iPod people.

Even without the white wires you can tell who they are. They walk down the street in their own MP3 cocoon, bumping into others, deaf to small social cues, shutting out anyone not in their bubble.

Every now and again some start unconsciously emitting strange tuneless squawks, like a badly tuned radio, and their fingers snap or their arms twitch to some strange soundless rhythm. When others say “Excuse me” there’s no response. “Hi”, ditto. It’s strange to be among so many people and hear so little. Except that each one is hearing so much.

Yes, I might as well own up. I’m one of them. I witnessed the glazed New York looks through my own glazed pupils, my white wires peeping out of my ears. I joined the cult a few years ago: the sect of the little white box worshippers.

Every now and again I go to church — those huge, luminous Apple stores, pews in the rear, the clerics in their monastic uniforms all bustling around or sitting behind the “Genius Bars”, like priests waiting to hear confessions.

Others began, as I did, with a Walkman — and then a kind of clunkier MP3 player. But the sleekness of the iPod won me over. Unlike other models it gave me my entire music collection to rearrange as I saw fit — on the fly, in my pocket.

What was once an occasional musical diversion became a compulsive obsession. Now I have my iTunes in my iMac for my iPod in my iWorld. It’s Narcissus heaven: we’ve finally put the “i” into Me.

And, like all addictive cults, it’s spreading. There are now 22m iPod owners in the United States and Apple is becoming a mass-market company for the first time.

Walk through any airport in the United States these days and you will see person after person gliding through the social ether as if on autopilot. Get on a subway and you’re surrounded by a bunch of Stepford commuters staring into mid-space as if anaesthetised by technology. Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t overhear, don’t observe. Just tune in and tune out."

[Sub Atomic]

1. Here's a suggestion from someone who's been around awhile.

Instead of just posting a link, try copy/pasting some of the relative text that you found interesting from the article.

You've obviously taken the time to read it as you're stating it's more of a sociological piece.

Why don't you quote some of the relative points from the article instead of just a link?

It will help in the responses to your posts, too.

:cheers:

[B0S0X87]

2. I'll change it

I figured c&ping was frowned upon as a waste of space... I was wrong, apparently.

[Catherine Vincent]

3. Not, not at all. As long as you don't copy the whole article.

Is it about Gannon?

[B0S0X87]

5. 'Fraid not

This board could use some de-Gannonization.

[trumad]

4. Reason why

If we were to just click on a Sullivan link, we'd have to take our computers outside to eliminate the smell of booze.

[unblock]

6. he's got a good point. and it's affected the walking portion of my commute

for those of you who have never had the joy of working in the city, lemme 'splain.

the sidewalk of manhattan, especially during rush hour, are filled with people. many are of course your fellow commuters, but there are always people out on smoking breaks, running errands, or, naturally, gawking and/or lost tourists.

so trying to get from point a to point b through this random motion of other pedestrians is a bit like a being a halfback in football. you have to anticipate the hole opening up and move, not where the hole is, but to where the hole will be when you get there.


the problem is, ipod users ignore many of the well-established pedestrian rules. they don't hear you clomp, clomp, clomping behind them; they don't hear you say, "excuse me". they are generally oblivious to their surroundings. so they move somewhat like tourists, except that they're dressed like commuters and don't stop and gawk as tourists do.

it's made my morning halfback runs much more frustrating....

[KoKo]

7. As someone who used to live in Manhattan this article makes me sad.

The hustle and bustle and the way one learned to move through the crowds was a badge of honor of being a New Yorker. When I moved there I was totally clueless but learned to get the hang of how you walked and where you walked and the protocol.

This does sounds like folks moving in their own world isolated from it.
There was always that New York "stare" where you learned to keep your eyes focused ahead so as not to look to interested or curious about your fellow travelers...but this takes it to the next level of just "removing oneself" from everything. No bird noises,honking horns, bus groanings, steam noises from the subway vents,rustlings or sublevel human activity. Just your i-pod, and you. :eyes: