Byrne.+iPod,+Development+or+Digestion?

=Byrne, Ben. "iPod: Development or Digestion?"= //Avantwhatever//. 2005. Print. 29 October 2011.

**Abstract**
No abstract.

Argument
Ben Byrnes discusses the effects of the iPod on society and implies how this device, as opposed to being the harbinger of death for radio and other musical media, is instead a transformation of technical communication, and how people use it interact with the world. Byrnes entails how the iPod provides privacy, acts as a barrier by protecting its users from a potentially unpleasant and damaging soundscape, and allows new social outlets by allowing users to create podcasts, party-mixes, and playlists. The author turns to studies, conducted and researched by various other writers and experts, for evidence supporting the argument that “the iPod [doesn’t stop] users from developing any kind of social life but rather it allows users to avoid the unexpected or unsolicited when in uncontrolled social environments" (3).

Key Passages
Byrnes explains the ways in which personal listening devices create privacy in public:

"With the iPod, public space is recast as private – bus seats become lounge suites, streets begin to resemble hallways and public eateries are transformed into private kitchens. This is conveyed even in Apples’ marketing of the iPod, in which anonymous silhouettes dance freely as if unwatched (as one would in the privacy of their bedroom or kitchen), all 'jacked in' to the starkly contrasted white ‘Pod and earphones" (1).

Byrnes on how iPods can be flexible societal tools:

"Writing during its infancy, Bertolt Brecht suggested that as a communications technology radio is 'one sided when it should be two', hopeful that as the medium developed it would fulfill its promise (Brecht 1932, p.52). Decades later I think few would disagree that radio has remained a one sided, democratic, technology. However, as a reminder of the hope once held for the possibilities of radio Brecht’s comment suggests the hope that could now be held for the possibilities of the iPod as a liberal communications technology" (6).

**Selected Works Cited**
Brecht, B. "The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication". //Brecht on Theatre.// Hill and Wang, New York, 1932. 51-53.

Sheldon, N. 2005, 'Plugging In To Music Doesn't Mean Switching Off The World', New Media Age, p. 14 .