Pop Geek

My four-year-old took to it like a duck to water. I use it pretty much every evening for at least an hour or two. Older folks I know don't understand the point. They like books just fine, thanks.

But it's more than books, of course. It's the internet, and social media, and comics, and games, and movies, and TV shows, and yes books, and things we haven't even imagined yet, sitting in your lap on a small beautiful sheet of uninterrupted glass. 

Let's talk specifically about that "internet" part.

My college years seemed to have lined up with the emergence of the world wide web as a viable conduit for information and entertainment. I started in 1994, and the big scene was usenet. By 1998, I was checking out Harry Knowles every morning and publishing my own content online. The internet was introduced into my life as a multipurpose environment. I exchanged information, communicated for school and business...but also socialized and found plenty of material that functioned solely as entertainment. Heck, I remember times when I'd end up crowded around a computer with my friends actually surfing the web FOR FUN. It was new, it was exciting, it was chock full of weird. Still is. 

Like most of my peers and most who have come down the information superhighway since, I quickly viewed the internet as a recreational pursuit, in addition to a tool for communication and information gathering.

At the risk of speaking in broad generalities, I'd argue that for those in previous generations, the internet was introduced not as a multipurpose environment, but as a communication tool that also did all this other stuff that might be okay if you had any time to waste but that's really what TV is for anyway so back to work. E-mail became quickly ubiquitous, but it's not like alongside that our bosses and parents were also encouraged to check scores on ESPN.com or participate at a message board devoted to their favorite soap opera. 

I think buying into the value of an iPad means embracing the internet as a recreational pursuit. It's not that the iPad can't be used as a business tool or a device to Get Things Done, but when you sit down with it, you kinda have to know what you want to do with it already, and chief among those things should probably be some typical internet pursuits--not just e-mail but Facebook, websites and/or RSS feeds, and the like. If all you expect it to do is to help you read ebooks and maybe check your e-mail, you don't need one. You need a Kindle if you can handle it, or maybe even just a Barnes & Noble gift card.

If you're not participating in the internet on some level, at least as a regular consumer, then you won't see the point. But then, you probably already don't see the point. You probably don't have a Facebook account or if you do, it's not something you have integrated into your life. It's an add-on, something grafted onto an existing structure of communication that includes the telephone, the television, the newspaper, and maybe some e-mail and/or texting. 

NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT. Enjoy life, go with God, etc. 

But if the iPad has a "point," and it probably has several overlapping ones, I would argue that it's inextricably linked with the enjoyment of the internet as a recreational tool. A place you go not just because you have to accomplish a task, but because you want to be there. You enjoy spending time there. You always get something out of it. 

It was sometime in 2004 that I realized the following:

1) I owned several hundred music CDs.

2) I was rapidly acquiring a great number of mp3s, which I would then burn to CD-R, thus increasing the quantity of CDs in my life.

3) I could use an mp3 player to literally carry ALL of my music with me at ALL times.

So I bought one, a Creative Zen Jukebox, 60GB, and I returned it a few days later. Something told me something better was out there.

I got an iPod, also 60GB, one of the first video-enabled versions. I got it for Christmas one year and spent several nights after the holidays dilligently ripping all of my CDs as 192kbps mp3 files. The CDs went into a box; a few years later, I sold them all.

There was no looking back. 

**

I have an iPad, a decent Android phone, two laptops, several external hard drives, and a little iPod shuffle I use when I do yard work. 

My 160GB iPod Classic is the most important consumer electronic device I own. 

To most, the idea of 160GB worth of music on one's person at all times is insane. But if that idea makes sense to you, then it makes A WHOLE LOT OF SENSE. 

I have about 200GB of music on an external portable hard drive. It includes those several hundred CDs I ripped years ago, many bootleg recordings, stuff I bought from iTunes and Amazon, and albums I've acquired through a variety of not-quite-legal means. The "essential" material from that library lives on my iPod Classic.

If I'm driving, I usually start with playlists I have set up to capture all the songs I rate four or five stars. It's like a personal radio station that continues to grow its playlist as I explore records and find new great songs. 

If I hear a song that reminds me of a great album, or puts me in the mood for a certain artist, then a few spins of the click wheel takes me to that album, or that artist. That may not seem important to you, but to a music geek, it's invaluable. 

For me, music is like this endless constant conversation going on every day of my life. In the car, at the office, I'm frequently listening to something. Each song, each record, leads me onward to the next. 

The iPod Classic is what makes that possible. I hope it never goes away.