The End of the iPod (Thank God!) - PC Magazine

The music players have only been a detriment to society and I look forward to the day that they disappear.

This will probably be the last year that the iPod means much to anyone. Its last vestige seems to be the cute little iPod wristwatch lash-up using the nano. However, as the iPod fades, I say good riddance. Its real legacy is that the entire country will now have to put up with a generation of half-deaf Americans.

Articles repeatedly report that people listen to their iPods at levels that are too loud for the human ear. Yes, the newer iPods have monitors to control the natural tendency to blow out the volume, but it's too late.

Some of us baby boomers actually worked our way through college at industrial companies where ear protection, salt tablets, and hard hats were part of the work environment. The idea of ear protection, however, was not drummed into the heads of today's youngsters who commonly hurt their ears at rock concerts and by listening to iPods that are too loud.

I know plenty of people in their 30s who loved metal bands and ignored the need for quality ear protection. Now they must shout just to hear themselves. "Huh? What? I'm talking too loudly?"

Often times, I'm seated near someone on an airplane who is listening to an iPod. Even from seats away, I can identify the song. I cannot imagine how loud it must be to the actual listener, who will be listening for hours. I've even been near someone blasting music so loudly that I had to tell him to turn it down because it was bothering me. The guy should have just stuck his head inside a boom box.

The iPod also began the process of sociological separation between people and their environment, which has only gotten worse with mobile phones and texting. One could argue that people's fascination with divorcing themselves from the surrounding world and immersing themselves in a playlist is not as dangerous as distracted phone chatting or texting, but I wonder.

Yes, people often walk into telephone poles while walking and texting, but at least they are socializing. When plugged into an iPod, listeners completely detach themselves from the immediate reality and zone out.

At the end of the day, it all boils down to the earbuds. These sound injectors should be outlawed. I've never discovered the inventor of the modern earbud because earbuds actually predate the headphones and earpieces used with non-amplified crystal radios. Adding amplification to the device is simply not healthy for the ears.

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I do know that I've already witnessed the invention and popularization of the transistor radio, which people used as an early personal entertainment device. This morphed into the very popular boom box, which people often carried around on their shoulders.

The boom box seemed to have disappeared overnight once the MP3 player, epitomized by the iPod, appeared.

Well, the iPod fad is not completely over but rather has transformed into a smartphone fad. This should eventually morph into something else again. Let's hope that for the sake of the next generation, it is something that does not destroy our hearing.

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You can Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter @therealdvorak.

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