Walls of WalkmanSony's little music machine turns 25 -- yes, it's been that many years since public conversations died
Jul. 25, 2004. 10:42 AM / TORONTO STAR
..."It is virtually an extension of the skin. It is fitted, moulded, like so much else in modern consumer culture, to the body itself ... It is designed for movement -- for mobility, for people who are always out and about, for travelling light. It is part of the required equipment of the modern `nomad.'"...... the Sony Walkman, introduced in North America 25 years ago this month, was a private thing, an individual indulgence, a secret door through which you could enter your own personal soundscape at will.
You could inhabit that insulated place oblivious of the distractions of the world around you, while the world around you was oblivious of your unobserved departure...
.... Dr. Graeme Turner, a professor of cultural studies at the University of Queensland in Australia.
"The Walkman significantly provided a separate cultural space for its users, no matter where they went. And they could decorate that personal space the way young people decorate their bedrooms ... It was not like the TV, stereo sound system, or radio. It was personal and mobile.".... They could reinforce their self-image by focusing only on the music that contained the codes and messages they needed or wanted. They could move conspicuously to rhythms no once else could hear ...
...."We may think we're connected to the universe, we may well be in control of our personal space as a result of these technologies, we may think we're networking, but it's in a one-on-one system. It's a fetishization of connectedness, an illusion."