Since September, the only request on my Christmas list has been the Apple iPod. I don’t care that the top-of-the-line model costs $400, or that my parents will have to take a second mortgage out on the house. I want an iPod. 

It seems that every person I see in the Student Center sports those trendy white earphones and bops about with a rhythm only afforded those with the newest technology. I stare jealously as my generic Discman stumbles through whichever scratched CD is inside. Eighty minutes later, I will be forced to fumble through my satchel, locate that bulky CD sleeve, and carefully change the media to something a bit more fitting of my rapidly changing moods. 

I’ve talked to a few people who have said the iPod changed their lives. Suddenly, there is one more thing you must grab upon leaving the apartment: car keys, wallet, phone, lip balm, portable media stockpile.  

Likewise, a friend of mine told me of how he lost his cell phone and driver’s license at the bar one night. He complained how an irretrievable part of his life, his phone, was stolen that evening when someone walked off with it.

I said, “At least you didn’t lose your iPod.”

He said, “If someone took my iPod, I’d kill them. I don’t know what I’d do without that thing.”

An audiophile is a music addict. Songs are their heroin and the iPod their needle and spoon. I picture a bunch of music junkies hawking every last item in their shoddy apartment for more music. They would huddle around a shiny rectangle with a square screen and round click-wheel, waiting for new tunes to download. Afterwards, each would curl up in a corner, rocking back and forth, consumed by audio withdrawal.

“Just one more hit!”

With the 60 GB model holding up to 150,000 songs, one could seemingly disappear from society for months without repeating a single song on the playlist. I’m almost positive this has actually happened with a few design students I know. They slip on their virginal-white earphones, step into studio, become lost in the music, lost in their project, lost in their hatred of life and don’t set foot outside until semester’s end.  

There is nothing wrong with this course of action. Music makes everything better. I rely upon it to accentuate every emotion. It pops when I’m happy and weeps with me on rainy October days.

The iPod takes the love of music and runs with it. Apple says it created the iPod to be the best digital music player in the world, and part of that goal includes creating the best possible digital music experiences no matter what a person is doing.  

Technology streaks forward. Now it’s iPod+Video, yesterday it was the iPod Mini, tomorrow it will be the iPod+Video+Camera+Word Processor. Our children will enjoy the iEar, the first digital music player to utilize nanotechnology. Embedded within the ear canal, music will be downloaded through a specialized USB piercing and stored somewhere on the left brain.  

As I said before, there’s nothing wrong with loving music. As it becomes more accessible, people will listen as much as humanly possible.  

Ryan deBiase is a senior English major and columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].