I borrowed the iPod and took it on my bike ride this morning. I have a short, vigorous ride I do nearly every day: down the hill to the Burke-Gilman, north several miles, off at 95th, then up a short, steep pitch to get back on the plateau. One last uphill past the Starbucks, and a coast home. A little over seven miles. I judge my fitness by how fast I do the uphill part, and by how mentally painful that bit is.
The loop is getting boring to me, and is turning into a chore. I know how dangerous it is to listen to music on a bicycle, but, despite the risk, I wanted to see how it changed the tedium. Too well, it turns out.
I have a strange playlist, being unused to composing these things. I installed random tracks from a dozen CDs and they fit together disharmoniously. Simon and Garfunkel. Astor Piazzolla, Mark O’Connor, James Taylor, Turtle Island, Sharon Shannon, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Filippo Gambetta, Yo Yo Ma, Martin Hayes, Frank Ferrel (yes, you have me typed now—boomer folkie).
The landscape flew by like background to a soundtrack. I knew in my mind that I was riding my bicycle, but I didn’t know in my body that I was riding my bicycle. It was like watching myself ride. I told myself to be especially alert at intersections. The odd thing was that I was so aware of telling myself this. With the music forward in my experience, I had to change my usual trajectory through space from automatic to manual. Disconcerting is the least of it.
My steep, painful hill appeared, and my body scaled it while I was elsewhere. I could detect that I was breathing hard, and that I was overheated, but intrigue and pleasure with the vocal harmony of "Rivers of Babylon" was my primary occupation. I might as well have been on my couch, listening to a CD, which is where these things are supposed to happen.
There is a clinical diagnosis for this type of experience. It’s in the Diagnostics and Standards Manual IV (code 300.6, Depersonalization Disorder). My wife treats people with it. It is alarming to me that a new, sexy technology can generate a dissociative experience so readily.
From a creative point of view, the prognosis is more distressing. My life as an artist and a professional depends on my ability to be fully present to the world, and to the sensations I am having at a given moment. It is from that place where my photographs happen. Viewing the world through an iPod consciousness obliterates that process. I worry about the larger impacts on a society that, though not so needful of that sustained focussed attention that I might require, depends upon creativity and flights of fancy for our cultural and economic well being. Are we anesthesizing ourselves into mediocrity?
Like nearly every new entertainment technology that's come along, the iPod is dangerous -- if the pleasurable state it brings you into is sought out to excess. And that's a big if. People prone to obsession and addiction will fall prey to iPod, just as they fall prey to TV, alcohol, and other compelling distractions. For the rest of the world, the iPod will be just one more thing to enjoy in moderation and abuse at our peril.
BTW, early studies of iPod use during exercise show that people using iPods tend to stay with the workout for a longer session and keep to a workout schedule. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/18/health/webmd/main953496.shtml
But riding a bike while listening to an iPod? Probabably not safe unless you're on a trail without cars.
Posted by: Karen | November 27, 2005 at 01:03 PM
Karen,
Please, don't take my rants personally. And I know I'm being a bit of a crank, and that the likes of me probably bemoaned the loss of primacy of experience and warned of vast cultural degradation when George Eastman introduced the box camera. What a can of worms that one opened up!
Doug
Posted by: Doug | November 27, 2005 at 03:20 PM
Yes, an iPod can be an obstacle to focussed attention. When you're photographing or doing some other focussed activity, it's probably not the place for an iPod. But that doesn't negate the value of an iPod for nonfocussed activity. As you discovered on your bike, an iPod can be a wonderful asset to speed along otherwise dreary tasks. So, yes you can have your cake and eat it too. The revolutionary thing about iPod is that it completely recontextualizes otherwise familiar music. You can either view this as "disharmonious" or as wonderful. Either way it's something new. I find that listening to familiar CDs, I anticipate the next song and mentally prepare for it. The iPod obliterates that, and as a result each song seems to sound new. Even the most familiar songs sound different with different neighbors. In answer to your question if we're anesthesizing ourselves into mediocrity, for most of society the answer is Yes. Fortunately most of society's tasks require nonfocussed attention.
Posted by: Blake | November 29, 2005 at 04:20 PM