thoughtcrumbs

TiVo and iPod encourage fetishism and anti-social behavior

In "The Age of Egocasting," Christine Rosen suggests that TiVo and the iPod have two detrimental effects on society:

1. They make us lazy samplers of art rather than patient critics. Downloading single tracks rather than entire CDs prevents us from understanding songs in their greater context (complete with B-sides and liner notes). In a Weekend Edition interview, she says:

   Art, literature, and music are supposed to transform us, take us beyond what we think we know and believe. If we're choosing only the things that already endorse what we believe, how will we have the possibility of discovering new things? A lot of these things encourage fetish rather than truly critical appreciation because they don't challenge us.

   and

   With experience and patience comes considerable reward--the disciplined listener eventually achieves a different understanding of the music, when heard as its composer intended. Listening to "Mahler's Greatest Hits" is not the same thing. Sampling is the opposite of savoring.

2. They decrease our awareness of and willingness to participate in the world. By wrapping ourselves in our own personal entertainment spaces (with iPod earphones or a cell phone), we close ourselves to interactions with others:

   Because the iPod is a portable technology,it has an impact on social space that TiVo does not. Those people with white wires dangling from their ears might be enjoying their unique life soundtrack, but they are also practicing "absent presence" in public spaces, paying little or no attention to the world immediately around them.

Update: Adam had something to say about this.