iHate the iPod

I work in downtown Seattle, which means aside from being raped every month to pay for parking, I'm usually witness to the front line of emerging trends for this area. Now this isn't exactly ground breaking as far as trends go, but I finally got pushed to the limit of this ridiculousness last week after two different incidents. What am I talking about? The iPod revolution and its impact on casual friendliness in life.

What you say? Save your keystrokes because you have no audience? Well yes, probably, but I still want to get this off my chest. What I'm talking about is the new burning need for what seems like half of the downtown population to be listening to music at all times. Everywhere I go I see people with their heads down, eyes to the ground walking around with the signature white headphones in their ears, screaming out "Don't look at me, don't talk to me, I'm busy taking in the latest indy rock to hit the scene and being hip." But its not just walking to and from destinations. Its in elevators, businesses, bars, and work. I recently witnessed a guy at Subway trying to order a sandwich while listening to his iPod and reading a novel (some dungeons and dragons type book no doubt). Are you f-ing joking me? You can't take those little bastards out of your ears for 2 minutes to help expedite the order of my delicious Spicy Italian? The final straw was last week when a 50+ year old man, in a business suit, passed by nearly running into me, yes, while listening to his treasured iPod. You're 50!! It is not cool to be acting this way.

Why is this such a big deal? Well, really its not. But seriously, when did we make the transition of having to listen to music at any chance possible? What did these people do before iPod's and MP3 players? How the hell did they survive in a world where the only sounds were passing buses and casual "good morning's" from their fellow mankind. What I see out on those streets is reminiscent of Hong Kong or New York (thousands of people running around with absolutely no recognition or care for people around them). And finally, its just another sign of Steve Jobs and his turtle neck wearing cronies influencing American culture in a negative way. Alright, that might be a stretch, but seriously, when it was just Rio and Sandisk MP3 players did we see this wave of hipsters wearing white ear buds? I rest my case. And for the record, yes I own an iPod.