Everyone’s lost between two earplugs, in their own musical world on the cell phone, finds RESHMA KRISHNAMURTHY SHARMA
The way we listen to music has changed over centuries and with rapidly mobile lifestyles, music on the move is getting jazzier and snazzier. Newer and technologically advanced gadgets seem to evolve just overnight. Listening to music on iPods is one trend that has caught up with the middle class and upper middle class. But listening to music on the cell phone has no such class barriers.
Whether it is a teenager commuting by bus or a carpenter cycling by, a single woman walking alone on the road back from work or the dhobi who came home to pick up your clothes, they are all in a world lost between two earplugs. Listening to music on mobiles with ear plugs on is a ubiquitous phenomenon. Earplugs are the new best friends, who offer comforting and melodious company.
Part of everyday life
Says Abhijit Sharma, an architecture student: “Mobiles have become an indispensable part of many of us and that includes me too. The availability of music on mobiles is a boon for me as I listen to it at least two to three hours a day, especially when I am travelling — either riding my bike or driving my car.”
Getting addicted to music on the move is also an interesting phenomenon because it’s not just cut across class and economic barriers, but also across the age demographic. With mobiles getting more affordable by the day, tuning into FM stations on the mobile seems a more common use for the handset than to even make calls! Women, specially, somehow seem to find in their mobiles a constant and reliable companion when they are travelling alone in buses or walking down the road or for that matter waiting for someone at a coffee shop.
The mantra at work seems universal. Keep yourself engaged with some music, in the process relax, and what’s more, you don’t even disturb others!
Radio or play list
Mohammad Rafiq, a software engineer at Core Objects, says: “While I do know that listening to music on mobiles especially when riding a bike is dangerous, I have to admit that like may others even I indulge in this habit almost as part of my daily routine. Unlike a few others who may be listening to the radio, I enjoy listening to my own playlist that I create every week and it is easiest to listen to it on the mobile. Also the utility of mobiles in modern living has increased, with inbuilt camera, Internet access and music downloads. So instead of carrying too many bulky things around it is easier to carry one handy gadget.”
Talking about her preference for mobile phones for listening to music Akruti. H, a dental student, says: “I travel quite a distance from home to college. And to avoid either unnecessary gossip in the bus or any other distraction, listening to music on my cell phone is convenient and almost stress-free. It becomes ‘my time’.”
PLAY ON
The multifaceted cell phone is more often the DJ than a telephone
People tune into FM radio stations or create their own playlists on their personal walkman.