Media Meditation #2 From radio to ipod

Last week I got my ipod stolen by someone that was over at my apartment. That person must have thought it was a good and smart idea to steal other peoples belongings which made me very sad. I am so addicted to this new technology that I went out and bought a new ipod the very next day. I love listening to music wherever I go, if it is at the gym, walking to class or on the airplane. I bought an ipod nano, which I previously owned, and was shocked on how much more advanced it had become compared to when I bought my first nano five years ago.


After playing around with it for a while I discoverd that you can tell the advice how much weight you want to lose and it will count your steps when walking and how much more you have to walk. It also has speakers which means you do not need earplugs and you can take videos that will be saved directly on the device. If i want to change the song I just need to shake the device and it automatically skips to the next song. The feature that fascinated me the most was that I can listen to the radio whenever and wherever I go. I can chose from any radio station around the world. ( I have not figured out if I can listen to European music while being in the States). I looked back at the Chapter in our Media & Culture book about radio and was shocked how fast technology has changed and will change over the next years.

The radio did not emerge as a full-blown mass medium until the 1920s but has been evolving over years. If you compare the new ipod nano to this old radio, where you could be lucky to get one radio station in even though being fuzzy and of bad quality.
This is a perfect example of Technological Shift considering an ipod has a colored screen that shows you pictures of the artist and the song that is playing along with the time and length of the piece.

I find it fascinating how easy it is to use a device such as the ipod and when you look back how hard it was to get to that point. If you want to find out how much work it takes to run and maintain a radio station check out this video that we have watched in class . Click here
The radio has come a long way and now you can even listen to it on your ipod. How cool is that?



This is the newest apple commercial about the nano that I have just purchased. It immediately appeals to the limbic brain because there is catchy music playing in the background. The production techniques are also very interesting because the camera is angled at the nanos camera which is a double effect. Very cool idea, because you can see the people through the ipod.

But I wonder what is next or what the ipod looks like in a few years. Maybe I will have a little chip installed in my brain that I can tell what radio station I want to listen to if teh radio still exists :)

Just keep in mind that the technology today is very advanced but it started off with basically nothing. It is really interesting to look back and find out how it all came to be.