A quick note to the iPod generation or Farewell to the podZombie

AUTHOR:Grey Lindley | DATE: 03 Jul, 2008 | CATEGORY:Commentary

So better keep this brief as i know the new Mac world is coming up so you are probably surfing the web on your iPod touch or whatever, but this I thought you should know: Ears are for hearing things. By "things" I mean other things besides music.

(iPod generation) "Wha?...Oh, hold on.."
(One Future) "I said: Ears are for hearing other things"
(iPod generation) "Aaaaaah, you mean Podcasts!"
(One Future) "Hmmm, nuoooo ... not exactly."

Prompted by a number of tragic/hilarious incidents on the London Underground system, I'd like to introduce a new term for the recently formed mass cohort of the 1st world population that has chosen to remove itself from the gene pool whilst listening to good music - you've already met them - they are the podZombie.

podZombies used to be ordinary human beings, but at some point have made a bizarre leap of logic which goes something like this:
1. Apple sell this product that allows me to wander around a busy city, completely oblivious to what is going on around me to the extent that I endanger my life,
2. But I get to listen to great music in the process,
So...
3. I will do that.

So here they are, an entire generation of people unable to hear train announcements, oncoming cars, fire alarms, falling refrigerators, oncoming buses, other people warning them about the oncoming buses, etc. [SPLAT!]

Listening to music on an iPod also seems to entitle the user to abandon normal social niceties like not breathing all over your face and staring straight at you for a full minute whilst entranced in the peak of the latest hit track. A guy was doing exactly that to me on a train one afternoon when the driver ordered everybody off ("All change,please") Of course the announcement could have easily been "Aaaaggghh get out! get out! There's been an explosion! Leave the train - we're all going to die!" As everybody disembarked the podZombie looked at me, bewildered, clearly having no idea what was going on. He shouted, "What's happening?"
I told him, "The driver just asked all passengers without iPods to leave the train immediately."

This is nothing compared to a girl I saw nearly kill herself the other day on the London underground. The doors of London trains make a high pitched whistle just before they close. This particular podZombie, obviously completely entranced by some videocast on her iPod nano, failed to hear the doors closing and proceeded to slam herself into the side of the train, leading with a very solid headbutt. As she bounced off the side, it was heard as a dull thud from inside the carriage.

I noticed as the train pulled out that it didn't knock her unconscious, but her earphones fell out, which to a podZombie is pretty much the same thing.