The Ipod Generation

We are the Ipod generation. Just like how the Sony advertisment hilariously showed an audiophile trying to figure out how to work around his addiction to sound, portable music is a large part of our lives.

I'm a member of such a generation. I insist on getting large capacity memory cards for my mobile phones so that I can have music on the go. There's nothing like a good, energetic song like "Outsiders" by Franz Ferdinand to perk you up in the morning. One thing I can't help doing when I listen is how I like to bob my head to the music, or sing along silently.

This morning, while I was on the bus, I spotted a middle-aged man in business attire plugged into his Ipod. However, instead of acknowledging a fellow member of the Ipod generation, I was thinking how weird bobbing one's head to the music looked. His semi-bald pate made the look even more comical; his fingers tapped the Ipod, supposedly in beat to the music.

It's strange. If we love our music, there shouldn't be any reason why we shouldn't let the music move our bodies. But spot just one person doing that and we all think he looks weird. Perhaps that's how we Singaporeans were brought up to be. Sitting still in our buses, sitting still in our cubicles, the picture of ultimate efficiency: any other action that does not add value to our work is a waste of our energies.

Am I looking at it wrong? Does anyone out there think that it's fine that people plugged in to their music players behaved like they're possessed? Is everyone really expected to sit still, the picture of a highly-efficient, yet seemingly apathetic population?
Once more, the reason I keep posting is to raise the questions, not provide the answers. -Jimmy