by Stephen
Giving up my iPod for a Walkman
June 30, 2009 in Gadgets, Humor, Music, Tech, iPod by Stephen
That’s what this 13-year-old did. Very funny observations for those of us who grew up with the walkman.
When I wore it walking down the street or going into shops, I got strange looks, a mixture of surprise and curiosity, that made me a little embarrassed.
As I boarded the school bus, where I live in Aberdeenshire, I was greeted with laughter. One boy said: “No-one uses them any more.” Another said: “Groovy.” Yet another one quipped: “That would be hard to lose.”
My friends couldn’t imagine their parents using this monstrous box, but there was interest in what the thing was and how it worked.
In some classes in school they let me listen to music and one teacher recognised it and got nostalgic.
It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.
Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn’t is “shuffle”, where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down “rewind” and releasing it randomly – effective, if a little laboured.
Here’s my response:
“Back in my day, we didn’t have iPods or mp3 players. We loaded our music onto our portable music devices the old fashioned way: One tape at a time, playing one side at a time. But we were thankful for what we had. Of course, back then, the earphones sat on the outside of the ear using a cool circular sponge cover, not like these in-ear buds we have today.”