iPod...therefore I am

Most of my friends are indeed small and white, but very few are as attractive as my most recent and least sensible online purchase, the iPod - Apple's super-sexy digital music player, capable of storing 5000 songs whilst weighing less than two CDs and maintaining a sort of smug, minimalist cool. Still, nobody is more smug than its owner, who today - he admits - sported its exclusive white earphones with several test outfits, coming to the conclusion that the iPod looks best against a black shirt [model's own].

During my 'test walk' onto campus, my iPod's first time, I picked up a copy of Rolling Stone magazine to read that I am not alone in my revelry of the little white device. "From the moment I saw it, I was stunned," says Moby in the cover story, '50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock & Roll.' The story continues, "By the end of 2003, the iPod has become a cultural phenomenon. Close to 3 million of the devices have now been sold, and they’re expected to soon outsell portable CD players... 'I never used to see people walking around listening to music on the streets,' said Moby. 'Now everywhere I go, I see the iPod’s white headphones.'" Everywhere he goes? Obviously not a well travelled man is that Moby. At a street value of £259 it would take a lot of rich kids or, in my case, those with overdraft and abandon, to pack the streets with the sound of digital music.

On my return and with my newly aquired membership I logged on to the iPodLounge web site, only to feel pride like a lump of sick in my throat at the really sad user submitted photos of "iPods Around the World". I swallowed, and determined not to be the kind of person who photographs themselves with digital music players, promptly replaced those uncomfortable, bass-light white earphones for the black Sony ones I've used for years. Realising that nothing quite replaces the interactivity of human relationships I called my friend, Rachel, for a game of racquetball. She's small and white too, but unlike the iPod she listens, and is less likely to inspire the cult-like worship of Geekdom and its disco king, Moby. No offence, Rachel.