Superior Technology

Superior Technology

It took me a while to jump on the iPod bandwagon. I clung desperately to my Creative until they were all but extinct. The iPod had won.

But had the superior technology? Certainly not.

My Dilemma? I look at my iPod now with a mixture of disdain and reverence; yes it holds all of my music, and syncs so easily with my MacBook; but is this the kind of audio quality I want?

However when the Pope himself can be quoted as saying 'Computer technology is the future,' a larger internal dilemma is being overlooked by third parties.

I defined myself by not only by the music on my MP3 player, but by the player itself. (And with the varying iPod colour options available, it is clear that this is in part Apple's intent with their product as well.) Self-defintion through not only music, but through technology. Through science and engineering, not through faith.

If one can deduce from a playlist whether someone is a 'thinking person, a discerning individualist, a lover of fun, of high and low culture' (Levy, 2006), the mere fact the leader of a religious institution such as the Catholic church, not only owns an iPod, but embraces future technologies suggests a shift, (albeit a small one) in otherwise stubborn thought.

As a staunch Agnostic with Atheist leanings, the implication is perhaps that the superior technology does not always have to lose out.

And that for all the logical arguments in the world, sometimes an iPod just works better.

References

Levy, S. (2006). The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness, New York: Simon & Schuster, pp. 21-41.