Week 10 - My AWESOME assignment

Poisoned Apple

Long gone are the days of the 10 inch vinyl records with an even bigger platform to listen to them on. No more big, heavy and ugly record players. No more tape players and no more deskmen’s. In today’s highly technologically advanced world, Apple’s iPod runs the show. “The popularity of Apple's iPods has swelled and now dominates more than 70 percent of the digital music player market” (Ecommerce times, http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/entertainment/57268.html).

The Apple iPod firstly came into the world on October 23, 2001 and was released into Australia shortly after. The first iPod could hold up to 1000 songs and were quite chunky. Despite the size and weight, the world was taken by storm and the only words on children’s mouths’ were iPod. In the years to come, and with the advance in technology, Apple continued to bring out small music platforms with a bigger capacity for music and files.

Preceding the first generation of iPod came the iPod mini, which had the capacity to hold up to 1000 songs and had the ability to store up to four gigabytes of files. Along with iPod came iTunes; the software necessary to delete, update and buy music and videos, although, at this stage, music was the only compatible file to listen to on the iPod. Since then, iTunes has seen the almost imminent demise of Windows Media Player, as most users of iPod’s, and even those without iPod’s have swapped to an easier and more manageable program that is iTunes.

Although iPod’s can be seen as the best technological advance for a long time, there are a lot of so called ‘faults’ in the concept. IPod’s have the ability to store mass amounts of data in different formats. This may sound like an awesome idea, but when people have access to this information stored anytime they wish, fraudulent and dishonest behaviours run rampid, especially when these particular devices are available in such situations as exams and school environments. “Schools across the country are now targeting digital media players as a potential cheating device” (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/WireStory?id=3098091&page=2). Having access to notes, questions, answers, images, videos and voice recordings gives cheating a new dimension. This pocket sized ‘book’ of knowledge has raised hell globally and the reign of destruction still continues.

Along with cheating, copyright infringements are coming in a close second in terms of the negative effects of iPods. Apple, although creating the iPod, has tried to steer the consumer away from illegally downloading music then uploading it to their iPod. Apple has released iTunes Music Store to help encourage people to buy songs, pictures and videos in a legal manner. Programs such as Limewire and WinMX are software that use the P2P platform, or the Peer-to-Peer system. This method takes parts of songs from various servers and filters it. In doing this, the authorities can not prosecute anyone for copyright infringement, as the file has been sourced from various places. Apple, through the creation of iTunes, have done their best to stop this illegal activity.
However, if iPods were to only have music, songs and files obtained through iTunes, they would not be as successful as they are nowadays.
Through the vast opportunities associated with iPods, more and more people are looking to modify their device and make it more personal to them. The more personal it becomes to them, the more time they begin to spend indoors or listening to their iPod, or both. Now, with the new game available for Video iPods, reclusive behaviours are becoming a more day-to-day activity. The “iQuiz interface will be enhanced and the game itself will be the first to let players actively share information between each other through custom question lists, according to the description.” (http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/04/18/iquiz.ipod.game.surfaces/)

The word on many of the critic’s lips is ‘antisocialism’. “Frankly, I think that the iQuiz will encourage the younger generations to sit in a corner and play with their iPod rather than play with other children!” (Tolini, M. 2007) The way the advance in software and technology alike, I suspect that in the very near future will be seeing killing games being played on the average, everyday iPod. Where will we be lead after this? Maybe to pornographic games and eventually the demise of ‘The Great Outdoors’? The decision is entirely up to Apple and is at their discretion where they stop this new and imaginative software from destroying our future generations.

The level of sound that iPods can generate can cause detrimental effects to the sensitivity of the inner ear. It has been proven that “music can cause hearing loss if it's loud enough and exposure is long enough. A person can damage his hearing at a live concert or by listening to recorded music.”(http://www.hearinglossweb.com/Medical/Causes/nihl/mus/mus.htm)

The Hearing Loss Website concluded an experiment with the “fact that today's young people seem to be experiencing hearing loss at an astonishing rate, and that personal audio equipment seems to be contributing to that trend. Newsday recently published an article in which they state that twelve percent of children and teens in the US suffer from noise-induced hearing loss!” (http://www.hearinglossweb.com/Medical/Causes/nihl/mus/ipod/ipod.htm)

So, after hours of research, iPods, as written about in many sites, have been proven time and time again to have detrimental effects on the consumer in terms of deception, illegal consumption of music, videos and files, the encouragement of antisocial behaviours and dire consequences on the inner ear as a direct influence of listening to media too loudly. Although this technology is new, creative and enjoyable to use, is the world really ready to reap the wrath in the years to come from the abuse on our bodies now?
Reference List

Ecommerce times, http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/entertainment/57268.html, 4/5/07

ABC News ,http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/WireStory?id=3098091&page=2, 4/5/07

Electronista News,http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/04/18/iquiz.ipod.game.surfaces/,5/5/06


Australian Hearing Clinic,
a) http://www.hearinglossweb.com/Medical/Causes/nihl/mus/mus.htm, 6/5/07

b) http://www.hearinglossweb.com/Medical/Causes/nihl/mus/ipod/ipod.htm, 6/5/07

Michael Bull, http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a723805862~db=all, 6/5/07

Iee explorer, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=1318185, 6/5/07

http://ipod.gcsu.edu/pdf/chronicle031805.pdf 7/5/07

Robert Godwin-Jones,
http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=GGTC2Kp12xMrJBGvsZGNNlzp1sMvzGTFw6hyFJTnLQM82J0Lvk4J!1188853019?docId=5008329079, 7/5/07

Christopher V. Marsico, Marcus K. Rogers,
http://peter2.krum.name:8080/CF_stuff/05-fall-MarsicoRogers.pdf, 7/5/07