8/13/2019 Journal 11122013

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This week, I was primarily interested in the Walkman Effect article. I

thought it was funny that the article spends a significant amount of timetalking about how the Walkman is a technological downgrade because it

only functions for a single purpose. The anomaly caused by the Walkman is

explained in depth, but has clearly been disproven by its downfall.Miniaturization has also been a theory that was tested and met a limit

within the consumer population. The iPod mini is the smallest that an mp3

player has been successful at.Singularization was the most interesting part of this article to me.

The idea of separation or of a robotic society due to music consumption is

something that I have thought about a lot. When walking around campus,

you see most students plugged into some sort of listening device with

headphones on. Many people define themselves by the music that they

listen to, and now they can live their lives within the realm of that music. At

any given time at the arch, you can see different people responding to themusic that they have chosen to listen to in their journey from point A to

point B. The experience had by each individual is different as opposed to a

culture that had no distraction from the natural sounds of the world.

People are able to separate themselves with their music; to create a world

that is completely devoid of company. All people used to be forced to react

to the same soundscape rather than creating an experience of their own.

Now, every person through music can experience the world in acompletely different way.

One of the weirdest experiences that Ive ever had involved musicconsumption and singularity. Two years ago, I was on a cruise ship that hadmultiple clubs onboard. One of the clubs that I went to involved a listening

experience through headphones. The headphones given to each guest at

the club included 3 channels. In this way, each person had their own sound

accompanying the club experience. If you took off the headphones it was

silent, but with them on, the people danced to one of the three different

beats. The reactions of the people around were completely different

depending on the song that they were hearing. Some people danced slowly

while others moved to a more energized beat.

I find that the headphone culture has made music a much larger part

of daily life. Music is everywhere, and now plays a defining part in

experiencing anything. In the middle of a city, or out in the desert, anyone

can listen to any song at any time. I wonder what this will do to our

culture, or how this changes the wonders to experience within our world.