![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogITEM: The Sony Walkman is 30 years old this week.
BBC Magazine celebrates by getting a 13-year-old kid to trade his iPod for a Walkman for one week – and write a review of it.
Sample observation:
Genius. I recommend reading the whole thing.
FACT: Yes, I had one. Or rather, the cheap version of one, which wasn’t until 1983 or so. I listened to a lot of Rush, Queen and the Beatles’ White Album on it. Even though I eventually had a bunch of 90-minute mixtapes to go with it, the iPod was a godsend for me in terms of capacity. I rather like having 7,000 songs strapped to my belt.
Anyway, the Walkman/iPod generation gap is a classic example of Douglas Adams' breakdown of how the world works when it comes to technology (or anything else):
1) Everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;
2) Anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it;
3) Anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really.
Batteries not included,
This is dF
BBC Magazine celebrates by getting a 13-year-old kid to trade his iPod for a Walkman for one week – and write a review of it.
Sample observation:
It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.
Did my dad, Alan, really ever think this was a credible piece of technology?
Did my dad, Alan, really ever think this was a credible piece of technology?
Genius. I recommend reading the whole thing.
FACT: Yes, I had one. Or rather, the cheap version of one, which wasn’t until 1983 or so. I listened to a lot of Rush, Queen and the Beatles’ White Album on it. Even though I eventually had a bunch of 90-minute mixtapes to go with it, the iPod was a godsend for me in terms of capacity. I rather like having 7,000 songs strapped to my belt.
Anyway, the Walkman/iPod generation gap is a classic example of Douglas Adams' breakdown of how the world works when it comes to technology (or anything else):
1) Everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;
2) Anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it;
3) Anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really.
Batteries not included,
This is dF
