Earlier this week, Apple announced they will no longer make any more iPods. They are still available for now, but after the current supply is gone, that’s all.
The announcement had people saying it was the end of an era and how this little device changed the world. It made it possible to carry all your music with you so you could listen whenever and where ever you liked. It ushered in the era of streaming music and led to streaming everything. Now, since most people can do all that on their phone, they don’t need another device.
While I can see that for many it may have changed things quite a bit, it was a change I never participated in.
And it’s not that I don’t like the idea of having my music with me where ever I go. I like the concept. I just don’t see the need.
That was something that took place with the early portable devices. I had a portable cassette player. And a portable CD player. There was the odd time I would put on my headphones and listen to music outside of the house or the car, but I stopped. In part, it was due to the CD player itself. Portable CD players were very prone to skipping, so it was really annoying to listen to.
And I found I missed the sound of what was around me. I liked to hear the birds. Hearing that you have really annoyed a wasp and are abou to be attacked comes in handy at times. Not to mention being able to hear that car coming as you are about to cross a road. But mostly it was just being able to enjoy whatever was around me at the time. I didn’t like to block that out.
And there may also be a connection to the fact that I wear headphones quite a bit while at work, so I didn’t really want to wear them outside of work. It made it feel like… work.
So I never jumped into the portable music player thing. I liked hearing other sounds. But I can also see how many people might feel a bit nostalgic for the end of the iPod. I certainly saw many people using them. And being able to take all your favourite music to any place you wanted certainly had it’s advantages.
It’s just not something I’m going to miss.
