iBrick
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
Image Courtesy: DerkT
The other day after work, I walked to my truck to drive home and reached into my pocket to pull out my iPod as had been my routine for years. Unfortunately, I found that, as in every commuter’s worst nightmares, my iPod would not turn on. Had this been five years ago, I probably would have just worried about it once I got home and listened to the radio for my commute home. However, this thought never entered my mind. Instead, I proceeded to fiddle with every iPod troubleshooting method I could think of in the parking lot in a desperate attempt to bring my trusty musical friend back to life. After twenty minutes, I found that I was not going to be able to fix it without a computer. I had my laptop with me, but no sync cable. Even still, I refused to listen to the radio. I began to ponder what alternatives I still had. I could listen to a stream on my phone, but I didn’t have my HTC USB to 3.5mm headphone jack converter, either. I could listen to something on my laptop, but I didn’t have any media on it, as it was just a netbook.
The point of this was that in the time it took me to troubleshoot my iPod and think of alternatives, I could have been home already. But, I was completely dependent on my technology, and listening to old media was unacceptable to me. I think we as a society (or at least myself) have become too dependent on our technology. We have come to the point where we can’t even do simple tasks like driving home or watching television without our iPods, TiVo, or Hulu. Don’t get me wrong, I absoloutely love the new on-demand revolution, but when it gets to the point that sitting through a few commercials (which actually pays for the content in the first place) become intolerable, then the content industry should start becoming very worried. And what’s even worse for them, I think that day has come.