Walking around a college campus, “What do you have on your iPod?” might not be the most tactful way to get to know someone, but it is something that (nearly) everyone has in common. Everyone has an iPod that they listen to on their way to class or in their room. It’s not something that is usually shared, so it’s personalized exactly to your music and game specifications. Often, looking through someone’s iPod artist list can be more revealing than viewing their facebook page. All of the embarrassing guilty pleasure music you have is visible, and there are no limited profile settings.
I brought an iPod Touch, which means that it can project volume even without headphones. Currently there’s a volume lock that we’re trying to undo, but even so we as a team sometimes use it around the house (specifically, around a game of Monopoly Deal,) to listen to music. My taste in music is kind of scattered. I have things from Bob Dylan to Owl City to Carrie Newcomer to N*SYNC to Shane & Shane and even the Lion King soundtrack. It may seem random, but really I just appreciate a lot of different things, and I’m glad that when people look at my iPod, there’s a mix of “Oh my gosh, I love that!” and “Seriously? Why do you even have that?”
I’ve had a lot of great conversations with people on my team about music. But talking to people on my team is as far as those conversations have gone. I realize that looking at someone’s iPod is a privileged way of getting to know someone. Yesterday, I saw someone on a bike listening to music and it dawned on me that it was the first MP3 player I’d noticed outside of our group since the airplane from Atlanta to Dubai.
All of this has led me to see how much at home I use technology and music as a crutch in terms of getting to know people. I see that someone else likes the same music or television shows that I do, (Side note– I’m officially missing Netflix.) and feel closer to them without actually talking to them. In talking to people here, we don’t hide behind those walls of trivial preferences. In getting to know someone, time is not spent on that, but instead we talk about things that in the states, we keep guarded. “I just met you” is not an excuse not to tell someone about your family, struggles, and fears. It’s awkward, and I’m not completely comfortable with it yet, but it’s challenging me to grow, and I like that.
