University of Kansas - Jayhawker Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

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,,-- The young man looked around the bus, sighed, and then sat down across the aisle from me. I almost felt sorry for him. Until he started talking to me. Within two min- utes ofthe most bizarre, uncomfortable small talk ever, I understood why those three girls had a sudden need for music. I nodded apathetically to his questions. I shrugged non-committally. I yawned and stared out the window, but not a single social cue was getting through to this guy. Eventually he just started talking loudly to himself. Or to the entire bus. Iam not really sure. When the bus finally reached my stop, I got up and glanced back at the girls, still blissfully in their own little worlds. I realized that the iPod, complete with it's extremely visible white earbuds, was the technological equivalent of an imaginary ado not disturb sign. I had to look into this further. Kelsey Lynch, Overland Park senior, was sitting in the Underground, engrossed in finance homework as the drone of hundreds of students, conversations reverber- ated off the walls. As I approached, I noticed a focused, al- most serene look on her face. As the lunch rush reached its apex, the Underground surely became one of the loudest places on campus. YetI imagined Lynch was only hearing her favorite playlist. I hesitated before talking to her, realizing thatI might be about to disregard her own do not disturbv sign and be that guy. It turned out that Lynch was completely friendly and unperturbed by my interruption, saying that she generally uses her headphones just because she works better with music playing, and because headphones help her block out noisy distractions. Lynch did admit to using her iPod when she works out at the gym as a way of isolating herself from the other people there, so she could focus on her workout without interruptions. Elizabeth Anne Bond, Lawrence junior, says she uses her headphones primarily just because she loves music. It makes her day more interesting, she has more energy, and her walks on campus tend to go a bit quicker. However, she too admitted that, on rare occasions, she had caught herself using her headphones to avoid certain interactions, like when she passed people handing out fliers on Wescoe Beach. f'I can kind of see it as subconsciously avoiding people, because you're in your own little worldf' Bond says. Fd hope thatis not too detrimental. Brian Donovan, associate professor ofsociology, says he doesn,t necessarily see frequent iPod use as a problem. It,s just another example ofwhat he refers to as acyborg behavior, U describing the way we are continually chang- ing our bodies' relationship to technology. Citing rebellious teenagers of the '80s who used Sony Walkman cassette players to ignore their parents without any lasting negative consequences, Donovan predicts no ill effects from this next generation of Cyborg behax rot, and he predicts that in five to I O years, another new device will come along and once again change the way we interf act with each other. IVIichael Bull, a professor of media studies at the University of Sussex in England, has become the leading expert on the cultural impact of personal music dex ices. Bull says iPods give people an unprecedented way to choose their own soundtrack for their setting, allow- ing them to insert their own mood into the environment they,re in. Ultimately, Bull says, this could result in ii big city filled with people who are close in proximity, but each isolated in his or her own private bubble. A couple days later, I found myself in the middle of a small group of about Eve other students, all wen r- ing headphones of some kind. While we walked, I heard only the sound oftennis shoes on concrete. No talking, no laughing, no conversation, no witty banter-just feet on pavement. It was almost surreal. I was surrounded hy pod-people, each inside his or her own audio cocoon. The trick, I guess, is knowing when to slip into your own bubble and crank the soundtrack that will help you get through the day, and when to take off the do not dis- turbv sign and start a conversation with a fellow Jayhawk. You never know. Something great might happen that will shift your day from needing a soundtrack to deserving a soundtrack. Pon BLOCKED l 48

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IPOD ATION THEBEATOFTHE Music: SET A QUICKER PACE. YET i WASNQT AS TTRED AT THE END OF THE DAY. X! MATT ETECHTOLD sat on the bus in the early morning, casually glancing around me on my way to campus. Three girls sat at evenly-spaced intervals hehind me, each appearing half-awake, but relaxed. They went about their morning routine, sipping coffee or reading a hook, each one of them alone in their own little world. Then suddenly, the energy on the bus dramati- callychanged. The girls tensed like gazelles that had just spotted movement in the nearhy brush. l turned ex- pecting something preda- tory, hut it was just an awkwardly dressed young man climbing onto the bus. l had never seen him hefore, but I could tell the girls had, because all three simultaneously produced a set of earhuds and popped them quickly into place. O8-439,fJAYHAWKER K egg, I ,I ,va Tl than sa lor liin rites ol untleri music l non-ci lvut nt Event the en l glans little ' extre equix I the L dron ated most apex plat. her l be 3 be tl

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