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digital culture PodPeople
Inside the society the iPod created.Commanding over 40% of the digital music player market, the iPod has gone triple platinum despite its average price of $400—a noteworthy fact, but not as noteworthy as the concept of portable music as both a social symbol and a gadget-driven community. But is the secret society of iPeople just a clan of PodPeople? There are three million iPod-toting, music-loving hipsters roaming the world; how did Apple CEO Steve Jobs get them hooked? Is it just about the music? Or the appeal of the device's minimalist aesthetic? Or could it be a desire for the social status that accompanies early adoption of the gadget of the moment? Such factors don’t hurt, but a large part of the iPod’s allure may be the burgeoning iSociety to which the iPod grants admission; born on websites like iPod Lounge, it's now taking to the streets as well.
Meanwhile, while some sites are devoted to enhancing the iPod's capabilities, some sites are devoted to users who love their iPods just the way God made them. You can find one man's homage to his iPod online, in a short movie called iPod Love Returns, in which he dumps his girlfriend to enjoy happier times with a new catch, his iPod. Other iPeople express their love for the gadget in photographs. Some sites feature photos of iPeople with their iPods; iPods around the World, for example, divides the photographs by continent (even Antarctica is represented, and there's a shot from outer space). For many consumers, iPod is a bigger brand than its parent, Apple; this past quarter, for the first time ever, Apple sold more iPods than it did computers. So what caused this brand-conscious fan community to take its obsession to the streets? In an e-mail interview, Leander Kahney of Wired News explains that the practice known as "jack sharing" has been essential to spreading the iPod meme. On recognizing others with the signature white headphones dangling from ears to pocket, listeners approach one another and then switch their headphones into the other's jack in order to listen to each other's iPod. When asked what kind of people are doing the jacking, Kahney says they're "people of every age, color, and creed, together but not together." This new craze and many of its pioneers are associated with blogs like Steve Crandall's tingilinde: jack sharing continued.
When was the last time anyone asked to jack into your discman? Take notice: electronic skip protection no longer serves as a barometer of a portable music device’s coolness. One iPerson, who goes by the name of "Kronik" on the tingilinde message board thinks "the reason you don't hear about it with different players is due to the "uniqueness" of Apple fans. "Even if they are PC users," he says, "owning an Apple product sort of implants that 'think different' attitude." On the other hand, Kahney noted, in a recent interview with this reporter, "it all hinges on appearance": he likens the distinctive white headphones to "wearing a Clash t-shirt or carrying an opera score," emphasizing that the headphones "broadcast your tastes, denote your lifestyle... and identify users as part of the same club." Some jacking enthusiasts hang out on message boards devoted to the craze, sharing jacking tidbits and tips on the iExperience. Adam, a jacker who hails from Portland, Oregon, writes, "You see someone that's so excited by what they're hearing that they just have to share." Conversely, another Adam, who packs an iPod and hangs out at the boards as well, says you won't find any iPod jacking in his Tennessee town. Similarly, a user on the comment board identifying himself as "Zaphod," who received an iPod for his 16th Birthday, "think[s] if [he] takes out [his] headphones and points [them] at another iPod-ers' jack, [he] doubts they'd understand," but says he'll "definitely try it on [his] bus route." Pointing your headphones at random strangers' jacks can inspire a wide range of interactions. "Seeing someone cute, the iPod is license to break the ice," Kahney tells me. Bob, an iPerson who listens to his iPod on the F train in New York City, says he "had one girl walk up to [him] and take one of the earbuds out of [his] ear to listen to it." On the comment boards, Bob writes, "I got a date out of that one." Granted, not everyone will get a date out of iPod jacking. Nevertheless, Crandall is excited about the social dynamic of the sharing process. In an e-mail, he says "[iPod jackers] usually carry a small notepad and a pencil to write down interesting tracks," and that "seeing someone smile or write down [information about a track] is worth a lot." Crandall admits jackers may "try to impress each other" by playing DJ, in hopes of appealing to the other jacker's music tastes. When asked what he'd do if he didn't like the other person's taste in music, Crandall remembers an incident in which he and his jack-sharing partner displayed a mutual distaste for each others' music, but says that they "laughed it off, shaking [their] heads." Jacking abounds at New York City's trendy nightclub APT, where Tuesday nights are iParty nights. The party, thrown by Andrew Andrew, showcases both DJs and patrons, who pick songs played from an iPod that features a new playlist every week. The Village Voice calls it "sort of a mix between karaoke and open turntable night, with strong audience reactions making it fun and rowdy.” In an interview with this reporter, Kahney called it "good boozy fun." For some iPeople, however, fun takes a backseat to activism. One website, iPod's Dirty Secret, is an effort by two iPod-owning brothers from New York to warn consumers of Apple's alleged exaggeration of the iPod's battery life synonymous with its entire working life, since the batteries, in the earlier models, were not replaceable. The site's video of the brothers spray painting "iPod's irreplaceable battery lasts only 18 months" on every iPod poster they could find throughout New York City is an indicator of the wrath of disgruntled iPeople. Another iPerson's video at macboy.com is a remake of a recent iPod commercial , mocking the hype surrounding the device. Nonetheless, iMania is only growing. Its latest incarnation, the iPod Mini, has been so popular that Apple has run out of the tiny hard drives used by the device, further delaying the Mini's worldwide debut to July 2004. A fan posting on the jack-sharing message boards was probably kidding when he said "iPods will change the world!" Nevertheless, once the Mini goes global, the iPeople just might set their sights on world domination. Related Links: iPod Anonymous iPod Hacks and Help Future Now: iPod Jacking and Bluejacking Reach Out And Jack Someone Being Jacked, In a Good Kind of Way All Shook Up IPoding: What's that in your pocket? Everything iPod iPod Style (Japan) Stephen Bowles is editor-at-large for Readme. He is an undergraduate at NYU, studying journalism and computer science. |
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| Recent comments by Bill Gates have stirred up a small backlash among copyright reformists |
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 08.21.2004 - 4:06 pm EDT"Roshan shares a personal anecdote about P2P software"
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