Summary:
The popular iPod digital music players are like the "seashell radios" in Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" that are used to entertain one's self and limit human interaction.
As a civilization in the 21st century, technology has helped shape our society. Without even realizing it, technology affects a lot of what we do and when we do it. One of the most popular advances in technology today is the iPod. The iPod is a type of mp3 player produced by Apple, a computer company. Like most electronics, it has enhanced human existence, but it has also stifled human independence and experience by limiting human interaction.
IPods are a great source of entertainment. I'm sure the buyers of more than 42 million iPods think so too. That is how many have been purchased in the last year alone. IPods are compact, but have large amounts of available memory so you can download all your favorite songs. There are also games that come previously downloaded. The newer iPods all have color screens and with the latest Ipod, the Ipod video, you can not only listen to songs, but you can store and view pictures, movies, movie trailers, music videos, and TV shows as well. It holds up to 60GB or 15,000 songs, up to 25,000 photos, and 150 hours of video. IPods are also becoming more compact for portability and easy storage. The iPod nano can store up to 1,000 songs and is thinner than a pencil. Another great thing about iPods is how they can be easily personalized. With CDs, the songs you are going to listen to are predetermined for you. With iPods, you decide what you want to listen to, when you want to listen to it, and in what order. You can download what you want from iTunes, or an outside source of your choice including the songs you do want from CDs. iPods have everything you want and nothing you don't. They can also stay charged for up to 20 hours of music and fun.
Although iPods are great, they also pose some problems. For teenagers and kids in school, iPods are a big distraction. Many kids bring them to class and use them, which means that they are not paying attention to the lesson at hand. It is a proven fact that it is hard for kids to multi-task and nearly impossible for them to pay attention while music is blasting in their ears. Another problem with iPods has to do with the volume of the music itself. People are listening to them at a volume that is way too loud. The "rosebud" earphones put the sound right inside the person's ear and very close to one's eardrum. Loudness is not the only thing that can cause harm to the ears. The amount of time spent listening to a device at a certain volume can also increase chances of hearing damage. Scientists that have done research found that listening to loud music through earphones such as those for 4 or more hours a day each week could cause permanent hearing damage. Even worse than that is the effect it has on human interaction. People have become so fixated on their iPods that they use them almost constantly. Since they are listening to music all the time, they are not interacting with other people. Walking down the street, very few people are talking to each other. In fact, it's quite the opposite. They are walking and listening to music in an attempt to escape from reality and the people around them. This also goes on at lunch during school and at parties. Kids are excluding themselves and substitution human communication with music and movies. It stops us from spending time with the people we love and that could cause conflicts among people because of lack of communication. This isolating behavior is similar to that of Mildred Montag from the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. She uses petite radios called "seashell radios" and her "parlor walls" to escape from reality, limiting her interactions with society. The seashell radios themselves are actually similar to iPods. They are tiny and fit right in one's ear. In the book, technology is used at home and works beneficially, but is portrayed as negative and powerful. Society falls apart because everyone lives off of technology. It's an exaggeration, but thanks to iPods and other technology, certain aspects of the downfall of society could happen.
With technology, how and why people act in different ways, how life began, and other things that are important are going to fade away. People focus more on technology than in their personal things. Many people think that technology would be the solution for all worldwide problems, but it could probably make them worse. Technology is great for entertainment and sometimes for saving lives, but when we let it take over our lives we are really not saving anything at all.
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