iPod Nation

There is no doubt in my mind that you have all seen them, actually, you probably all have them. They're everywhere, on buses, at the gym, even just walking down the street; they're the Apple iPod, and they've become the "must-have" trinket of our time. In Peter Steven's book, "The No Nonsense Guide to Global Media," he discusses the importance of technology as our society becomes more advanced. Technology is supposed to help us solve problems and make our lives easier, says Stevens. Yet what happens when a company continues to "re-invent" the same product over and over? Is that really moving us forward, or just making an already booming company richer? Apple started with the iPod, which did make our lives easier by allowing us to take our music everywhere we went in a compact devise. Yet it seems that everytime we turn around, our version of the iPod is suddenly outdated because Apple made a new model that is has a color screen, is smaller, or is pink. These new versions still serve the same purpose as the old iPod: playing our music, so there is really no need to rush out and buy the nano, the shuffle or the mini, yet if you happen to visit the Apple store on a weekend you would never know. If technology is really meant to make our lives better, Apple should stop marketing the same product to trend happy Americans and start working at solving some real problems.