The one thing I notice on the way to university on the free shuttle bus, is that everyone is listening to their iPods. The white earphones all dangling down from their ears. I remember stories from the elderly who always have tales from people they have met on public transport, but it seems in the age of portable digital music players this social interaction has ceased.
Do not fear, I believe there is a simple solution that will keep people still listening to music and providing the social interaction that is missing in today’s society. Next time your on the bus and the person next to you is listening to their iPod, tap them on the shoulder, and suggest that you swap your earphone plugs between eachothers iPods. Not only will you learn something new about this person based on what music they listen to, you might enjoy the music they have.
Now this is the first step to what portable digital music players can offer. At the moment, with attachments, you can succesfully broadcast your music across the radio. This is normally used to allow the car speakers to play the music on your iPod.
Ideally a better way of broadcasting should be inbuilt into the iPod, and this is true with the iTouch with its wireless capabilities. Now iPod should include a default application that allows you to share your music by broadcasting within short distances and allow you to determine what broadcasts are being distributed.
In the previous example of the bus, you can now view and share your personaility with everyone else, and who knows this new form of social interaction could lead to other things.