A Girl With a Sword

shared place, shared sound

On Tuesday the Globe ran a story called "One Nation, Under a Groove" (which, sadly, I cannot link to because their website sucks) about the iPod trend in cities like Boston. It's something that crossed my mind when I first got my iPod. I wouldn't listen to it while walking across campus because it really seemed to destroy the aura of community. But I figured once I was in a city, having community with the people around me wouldn't matter and I could listen without guilt. In Britain this summer I listened to music a few times, but usually only when the people next to me had headphones on, or when I was walking alone in the countryside. But even then I felt a little guilty. I was missing the sounds of the sheep, and also the noise of approaching cars. And now that I'm here the guilt continues. I'm cutting off the people riding the bus with me, at the bus stop, walking down the street. I thought it would be useful to fend off unwanted conversation, but that's really the easy way out, as the Globe article points out. And I'm realizing, with more and more people individualizing our shared space with their own, personal sound, it won't be long until we forget we live in a shared world, that we are all humans together. I don't like talking to people at the bus stop, but I like hearing them talk to each other, hearing about their lives and their opinions. It helps me realize that even though my community is bigger now, and I might never see some of these people more than once, I still live in a community and I need to share places and sounds. Going out at night and passing by the busker and his folksy guitar and hearing it with the people around me instead of listening to my own, musically superior sound, this somehow seems healthier.