The forgotten war on the Walkman

Honestly there were some food points back then. A lot of people simply are not able to wear headphones responsibly. It's only gotten worse with noise cancelling technology. The ability to ignore the outside world is great when you're in a safe space to do so, but people doing it out in public or while driving are absolutely mad.

The quotes about "breaking societal connections" or whatever are funny to me though. Because that was happening at the time, but it had far more to do with the erosion of 3rd places and the rise of car-centric infrastructure than it did headphones.

"breaking societal connections", yeah. I don't remember where I saw an old photo of a train car full of people, all immersed in their... newspapers.
- you can speak to a reader, you can call for their attention.
  with bluetooth earphones and smartphones, it's like you're in two different realities. Because other people stop existing in that bubble, because they become part of the background, bubbled people stop caring about them.

Same as it always was with new technology. On a side note, I wish these were still made like they were. New portable cassette players all have the same terrible tape heads and the models from the glory days are really starting to fall to disrepair as time passes. I just had to cannibalize one of my Walkmans to fix the other, only to have the same issue resurface nearly immediately.

I was looking to get one, but a lot seem to be mono only. Otherwise Retekess TR606 looked interesting, even if just mostly as a toy.
How's the Fiio player? Also crappy heads?
- Thats one I haven't forked over for yet. It appears very chunky and I like my cassette players slim for pocket storage so I did not consider it.
- Fiio player? If you’re referring to the Echo Mini, it’s just a digital player. It’s just aesthetically a tape player.
  Edit: I stand corrected

"Will personal headphones lead to a world of silence?" We could have wished.

Also, the OG Walkman still looks brilliant. I wish they'd bring the headphone design back.

Living in a city, I can kind of get it. The number of people who simply walk in front of my bike because they're absorbed in their phone has made my commute stressful. I ended up installing a car horn on my bike which I'm sure makes their commute more stressful.

Perhaps the Walkman was the first time technology isolated people from the world around them.

Or I dunno, books.

The car horn on your bike is hilarious. Tangentially, a fun thing to try is using a bike bell on an escalator while standing behind people. We're so conditioned to being dinged and moving aside that people do it before they even think about what's going on.
- Watched a guy using an air horn on his bike riding around a European city using it on people walking in the bike lanes. So many people had no idea they were in a dedicated bike lane. Either blocking it or walking in it or crossing over it right in front of him.

Like always, outrage over useful tech is driven by stubborn conservatives hellbent on making everyone else suffer because "society".

Hmm, I’ve never seen someone directly link conservatism to the entire concept of society.
I didn’t know considering societal conditions was conservative. But I guess conservative leaders in the US did implement a lot of environmental protections. 🤔
Where does the line actually fall, do you think? I assume I’m over extending a bit here. Making assumptions about what you mean.
- I was being facetious. That's the excuse these idiots use for every single "new" thing.
- Well, you are taking the excuse given at face value. Do you also think laws for back doors in encryption systems are to protect the children?

I still have a walkman in my eurorack (the Loopman from Error Intruments).

this looks awesome!