When I were a lad, the walkman was still new enough that not everybody had it, and those that did made sure to show them off.
And largely, those that showed them off were rightly pointed at, and laughed at. Because they looked silly.
That said, I’m not sure that I’m a massive fan of comparing them by today’s yardsticks.
… it’s not exactly the most aesthetically pleasing choice of music player. If I was browsing in a shop maybe I would have chosen something else.
From a practical point of view, the Walkman is rather cumbersome, and it is certainly not pocket-sized, unless you have large pockets. It comes with a handy belt clip screwed on to the back, yet the weight of the unit is enough to haul down a low-slung pair of combats.
When it came out, the walkman was pretty much the first piece of kit that could play music and be moved about without risking a hernia. That was revolutionary. iPods, discmans, all that, they’re evolutionary; they’re all developments of that original idea. Yes, they’re all immeasurably better, but none was anything other than a refinement of what went before*. So it pains me to see kids just dismissing it like this. Anyway, if it hauls down your low-slung combats, you may need to consider a better fashion idea.
Also: the kid mentions that he could be left ‘music-less’ for the rest of a day, as if that would be a bad thing. Personally, I think that it’d hardly be the end of the world. A little bit of interaction, a little bit of being able to hear buses hurtling towards you as you step out into the road, that can only be good.
Basically: we all seem to spend too much time entrenched in our own little private world, and not paying attention to what’s going on around us. And the kids wear strange clothes.
And now, once I find a pipe and a smoking jacket, my persona of a grumpy old man will be complete. Hurrah.
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* – Save, perhaps, the integration between the iPod and iTunes, but I don’t like Apple. So I’m not going to focus on it at all.
Hannah made me go to the pub with her on Saturday night. Her choice of pub is where all the young people are achingly cool (they think) and all the old people have serious drink problems. Needless to say I felt out of place.
There were several young lads wearing low slung baggy trews. Honestly you could see their entire bum area which they had encased in high rise pretty pants. How in the name of god do they expect to be able to fight spides in clobber like that? They couldn’t even run away!
I much preferred the viking hippy drinking ale out of a large horn. Downside, he could never put his drink down. Upside – he’ll never be spiked. Not that he looked like he’d mind. Another good thing – he could use it to fight spides – big wide end for batting them with, sharp pointy end for gouging their eyes out.
Y’know, I’ve been feeling like that for a long time – the “too much time entrenched in our own little private world” thing. I don’t understand the need to have what is basically a complete computer with stereo system, phone, internet, camera and games console, in your pocket wherever you go. People sit and twitter or tweet (or whatever it is they do) when they’re having a meal with friends, and there’s very little concept of leaving work for the day when you’re effectively taking your office with you to the pub. I realise that it’s becoming almost essential to be able to do that – but that’s what I don’t like. I wonder how much of the world people actually see/hear/experience when they’re listening to music and sending emails and playing computer games as they walk down the street….
Nelly, surely if you’re a viking drinking out of a horn, you wouldn’t want to put down the drink anyway. I can’t imagine any viking-type leaving half a pint on the bar, for some reason.
Hails, I’m with you on that one. One of my prime considerations when looking for a job is “will this ever disturb me outside of office hours” – it is will, then I try to look elsewhere.