How does the iPod affect peoples lives?

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Professor iPod has never bought one of Apple's popular music players, but he can tell you why you need one.

Michael Bull, aka Professor iPod or Dr. iPod, is a professor in media and film at England's University of Sussex who studies the cultural impact of digital music devices. He has spent the last three years interviewing more than 1,000 iPod owners in the United States and abroad for his new book, Sound Moves: IPod Culture and Urban Experience.

As the stateside release of his book approaches, Wired News talked to Bull about the rise of the digital "urban Sherpa" and why the iPod is a one-stop shop for total bliss and daily rebellion in busy cities.

Wired News: In your new book, you argue that the iPod acts as an urban Sherpa. What exactly do you mean by that?

Michael Bull: It's the idea that increasingly we use modern technologies to navigate us through our day. In the Himalayas, you have Sherpas to help you through the mountains. They know the route, they have the food and they take care of you.... The iPod is a Sherpa -- it has all the things that you want. One of my (interviewees) said, "I store my valuables on the iPod; it's my data warehouse. If the house burns down, I'm not worried because the iPod has my family jewels.... " The iPod navigates us through our moods, work, our daily life.

WN: How is the iPod changing the way we interact with public spaces?

Bull: The iPod allows people to control their environment, more so than any other technology. In a world where we have little sense of control over our everyday lives, it can be very satisfying to control how you interact with your environment. You have a playlist that you listen to while you're out walking around New York ... certain songs that remind you of the city. But the real sound of New York is shut off. You're controlling what your image of the city is. We are fine-tuning the relationship between our own feelings and environment.

There's a paradox between the cosmopolitan nature of a city and the iPod, which signifies something else. As users become more locked into their increasingly subjective pleasure, they ... (are remaking the) world in their own image. It's the idea that, "I don't want to hear loud people; I want to be left alone," and the iPod allows that. The paradox is, cosmopolitism resides in the person's iPod. It's often the most amazing array of music from around the world; the rich mix of songs around the world contrasting with the chilly nature of the city.... Where does diversity go? In our pocket.

WN: How, then, does the iPod affect our relationships with one another?

Bull: People voluntarily spend their time away from their family, trapped in cars, on crowded tubes, traveling further and further for work and overall spending more and more time away from home.... In a sense, urban culture is a culture of dislocation. People are dislocated from their homes, so the technologies that we use are connectors that connect us back to each other.

IPod users, mobile phone users, are people who are always in another space. They warm up these alienated spaces with their own pleasure. But what we're really seeing is an increasing denial of shared space. In a street where everyone has headphones on, if someone shouts, no one can hear them. Of course, if they could hear them, they still might not help. But it furthers existing privacy tendencies in our culture. It enables people to inhabit these spaces much more pleasurably but those (shared) spaces we pass through become increasingly chilly, socially.

WN: Is this increased dependence on gadgets a bad thing?

Bull: I don't think you can say it's a bad thing. It's increasingly difficult for people to get away from things. Your everyday life is accompanied by something. People I talked to panicked if they didn't have their iPod. And to that, you can't say, "Well you didn't have one five years ago," because it's become a passive part of the everyday; it's an integral part of our lives.

WN: Are we going to get burned out?

Bull: It's good to switch things off sometimes, and maybe that ability is decreasing. People take (their iPods) to Yellowstone (National) Park, or when they go watch humpback whales.... Maybe the 21st-century culture is a culture where we don't want to be alone without thoughts, so we need a mediator. The only way we can get quiet is by constructing noise.

Many of the people I talked to had good jobs, and a lot of them used their iPods at work with headphones in order to concentrate. The idea being that you can work more efficiently, and not be disturbed.... IPod users are trying to become free by immersing themselves in consumer culture, but on their own terms.... It's a seamless experience and a way to reclaim the time they often feel is stolen.... If you want to place the technology in a broader sense, the iPod does work to make people happier.

WN: And what about the iPhone? Can it replace the iPod as that source of music and connectivity?

Bull: I did find a distinct relationship between an iPod and users' mobile phones. The iPod is a continuous experience they're in control of, and the phone is discontinuous, and when it rings, it's breaking that isolation bubble, so most people weren't keen on their mobile phones. I finished the research before the iPhone (came out) but it just wouldn't be as popular because it has a different function. It allows you to interact with the world in a different way.

WN: Has Apple expressed interest in your work?

Bull: The head of Apple's research division contacted me and said he wanted our results, and I said, "I don't have any." He wanted the quantity of things, and I said, "Well, I could give a seminar or come talk (about our findings)," and he said, "Well, if there were no results, I can't make time for you...." Apple is as commercial as any other company, but it has this persona that people seem to be attracted to, which is very strange. I don't understand those Mac people, even though I have one myself. I've got several iPods now, people kept sending me iPods. I've never bought one. They've all been sent to me for free.

WN: What does the iPod obsession mean, in the bigger picture?

Bull: Media technology is changing very fast, so if we can look at how we use it -- this tells us where culture is going ... how we inhabit cities and how we construct our daily lives. The iPod is indicating a new way in which consumers wish to act, which is individualism within consumption