Following the launch of the Sony Walkman X Series Video MP3 Player to mark the brand's 30th anniversary, a Daily Mail journalist has claimed the personal music player is "one of the biggest blights of urban life" and "the archetypal accessory of the me-generation."
"It is 30 years – yes 30 years! – since the appearance of the first Sony Walkman," writes the renowned fogey, A N Wilson, consciously or not reaching Charlie Brooker levels of Daily Mail Island parody.
"It is 30 years since we first got on a bus or a train and heard that infuriating tsst, tsst, tsst, tsst noise emanating from a wired-up earhole just behind us, 30 years since one section of the population became literally deaf to the existence of the other half," he scolds.
While for many this may sound like the rantings of an aging Luddite – particularly to those of us that grew up in the 1980s and for whom the arrival of the Walkman brightened up our daily peregrinations through grim northern towns – it is at the same time a good reminder of the importance of the Walkman brand. It literally divided the generations (and still does, clearly, in A N Wilson world).
The archetypal me-gadget?
"With one of these infernal things plugged in to your head you are literally deaf to the needs of others, and have no idea quite what a nuisance you are being," Wilson continues.
"Locked in to your own music choices, you can hear nothing said to you, and you will fast become desensitised to the fact that traces of your noise are intruding into the calm and silence of anyone who has chosen to travel without being wired up."
He continues: "By the time they [iPod/Walkman users] are 35, this generation will have experienced serious hearing loss. Of that, medical research is in no doubt whatsoever."
Wilson clearly needs to invest in some decent cans – such as some of those rather marvellous, noise-cancelling, personally-fitted ACS /Etymotic earphones that were released last month – which emit no noise and thus annoy nobody else sat nearby on the bus or in the train carriage.
It would also solve the problem that Wilson identifies with those white iPod earphones, which is that "Muggers will rip a decent iPod from your head if you are unwise enough to wear one in the badlands of our big cities."
For more marvellous nonsense from A N Wilson - or, as we refer to him in the TechRadar office, "the Victor Meldrew of tech" - head over to the Daily Mail's website. Genius.
Your comments (6) Click to add a new comment
lovlid
June 7th
6. @avi
your an idiot.
@mjd420nova
Your a dialy mail reader, thus, you too are an idiot. But wait... you wrote "firetruck", so you may be an American, if so, I apolagize, your not a daily mail reader, just an idiot.
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mjd420nova
May 17th
5. I have to agree that the walkman was only the beginning of the end. So many teenagers have been run over by trains at railroad crossings because they didn't hear the crossing bells or the train whistle. Or the number of times I've had to dodge the idiots running in the road, totally obivious to the traffic they don't hear behind them. These fools have the volume cranked up so high that it bothers those around them. Or even the clowns who drive down the road wearing headphones and make a left hand turn in front of a firetruck. It's no wonder that most of generation X have gone deaf. And they insist on listening to their garbage that compared to the real analog tracks from which they compressed them so they can get more selections unto their CD's or thumb drive MP3 players. IDIOTS. If I can't listen to the real music I'd rather humm to myself.
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blueskythinker
May 14th
4. The Sony Walkman has saved Britain. If I had to speak to the rest of the world on my daily commute I would have gone Postal by now.
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zoydwheeler
May 14th
3. What? How did we go from an over-the-top response to a very useful little gadget to the end of the democratic process?
iPod headphones are rubbish. Everybody knows this - not merely audiophiles that like to spend loads of money.
Why do you like to listen to the things going on around you on a bus or a tube when you could be listening to your favourite band or piece of music in glorious stereo sound? This genuinely baffles me.
And if somebody has cheap headphones on loudly that you can hear and it is annoying you - TELL THEM ABOUT IT! Or move seats.
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avi
May 14th
2. I have three iPods but rarely if ever use headphones because I don't like not being able to hear what is going on around me. The tizz, tizz, tizz noise of many modern loudspeakers and some PMPs is extremely irritating, which isn't at all surprising when you consider that it occurs at the frequency where your ears are most sensitive.
I don't read the Daily Mail or care much about it, but I would caution against slagging it off because most of the Media is decidedly left leaning with the result that this present Government has not been subjected to the scrutiny that it should have been. The result is that the Democratic process has been badly damaged.
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weezer
May 14th
1. Utter tripe. Commuters never talk to one another anyway. They never did when they were reading papers or books, so personal music players aren't to blame. If a stranger tried to strike up a conversation wit me first thing in the morning or last thing at night, I'd rather get off the bus and walk.
Daily Mail: scaremongering scum.
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