Clive Thompson on personal digital music players and the conservatives that hate them: “The whole point behind the personal audioplayer is that it provides a new aesthetic dimension to an already-aesthetic experience: Looking at the world around you. Conservatives fret that the white-earbud-sporting masses are simply tuning out and ignoring everything around them. But just as often, I suspect, a soundtrack actually makes you more engaged with the world around you: You notice stuff in new ways because of the emotions the music evokes.”

Andrew Sullivan: “There were little white wires hanging down from their ears, or tucked into pockets, purses or jackets. The eyes were a little vacant. Each was in his or her own musical world, walking to their soundtrack, stars in their own music video, almost oblivious to the world around them. These are the iPod people.”

al3x after chatting with a girl via iTunes library titles: “And then: sorry gotta go. The girl in corner with dark hair packs up and bustles the hell out of there, probably afraid I'd just have to talk to her. Don't call it social technology.”