News Regarding the Center
Apple's IPod a Technological, Cultural Phenomenon
PBS NewsHour
May 15, 2006
Apple's IPod a Technological, Cultural Phenomenon (PBS NewsHour)
JEFFREY BROWN: ... and a growing number of options of audio on demand.
And now video. ABC and NBC struck deals this winter with Apple to sell iPod users
episodes of some of their most popular programs, current hits like "Lost" and "Law &
Order," as well as "Dragnet" and other vintage shows.
So far, more than 15 million videos have been purchased at $1.99 each and downloaded
from the Apple iTunes online music store. But music remains the dominant force, with
over 1 billion songs downloaded from iTunes to Apple devices, such as the iPod and
its smaller offspring, the Nano and the Shuffle.
JAMES KATZ, Rutgers University: People love the iPod and love other MP3 players
because it allows them to create their own music environment, their own song of
their life.
JEFFREY BROWN: James Katz runs the Center for Mobile Communications Studies at
Rutgers University.
JAMES KATZ: Most people use them, of course, to listen to music. But like most
aspects of human behavior, it doesn't exist in isolation. What's really important to
a lot of people is how other people see them, whether they're -- how they see them
consuming music or walking down the street. And, therefore, something like the iPod
is considered part of a personal statement.
JEFFREY BROWN: You mean a personal statement, as in who I am?
JAMES KATZ: Yes, who you are.
. .
JEFFREY BROWN: But what does it mean if we're all walking around with earphones on?
Does the technology give us new freedom and opportunity to experience and shape our
world or does it put us into individual bubbles and keep people from connecting,
making us, as some sociologists say, alone together?
RUTGERS STUDENT: Now I use it every single time I'm on the bus.
JEFFREY BROWN: As always, new technology raises new questions, as we heard when we
sat in on a focus group Professor Katz runs with Rutgers students.
RODY ELHHOURY, Rutgers University Student: Instead of, like, making new friends or
meeting new people, they're just sitting there alone listening to their music. So I
feel like, in a way, you could be -- it is in a way isolating you, and you're not
making, like, more friends like you should or meeting new people.
JAMES KATZ: You might want to have a quick response, and then we'll hear from you.
DANNY PALESTINE, Rutgers University Student: Listening to music is that extreme.
Like, it doesn't build that cocoon. It's not like you're dead to the world, you
know. Like, you're not blindfolded and you're not, like, senseless.
. .
JEFFREY BROWN: Businesses are now turning to the Video iPod for employee
podtraining, allowing companies to cut down on expensive travel and meetings.
JAMES KATZ: For me, the biggest surprise is the way people use a technology that
couldn't be more isolating to actually build human bridges.
JEFFREY BROWN: To James Katz, all of this shows how people adapt to new technology
and use it in unexpected ways, and that applies even with the most basic use of an
iPod: listening to music.
JAMES KATZ: Even though the technology potentially would enable somebody to build a
capsule and never leave that capsule, what we find instead is that people get
actively engaged in finding sources of music, finding out musicians and groups that
they like, and looking for ways to make friends with and exchange ideas with people
who share their outlook.
. .
JEFFREY BROWN: Back at Rutgers, we put the question to an up-or-down vote.
Having iPods and MP3 players, how many think it's a good thing? That's pretty much
everyone.
For now, millions of consumers are seeing the benefits and voting with their
pocketbooks, but pod people and their critics alike will keep their eyes open and
ears plugged or not, as the technology continues to evolve and society continues to
respond.
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