Personal Sonic Devices: Reclaiming Space or Privatizing Social Connections?

Technology has the power to connect us, to transform us, and to empower us. It has played a vital role in organizing our lives locally and globally. As such, technology continues to define and redefine space. This organization can be looked at from two different positions, its positive and negative effect on space. Let us narrow technology down to a device most people have and can relate to: personal sonic devices (iPod and mp3 players). The iPod as a small pocket size music player, questions the borders of public and private space. Do personal sonic devises give users autonomy or is our social connection to the world diminishing because of it?

Personal sonic devices can be a tool whereby users manage space, time, and boundaries around the self, cushioning their daily routines around an inner/sonic space. Is listening to your iPod/personal sonic device a way of reclaiming public space or a way of continuing to privatize space? If we think of urban experiences we often think about the visual, what is seen, neglecting to pay attention to sound and what is heard. That is, we live in a visually dominated culture, whereby our city streets are bombarded with advertisements, billboards, signs, and cars, to say the least. When looking at the city experience from this perspective of visual bombardments, personal sonic devices can be looked at as a sonic shield, a world escaping from the bombardments outside and around the self. Users may even see themselves as having choice, choice of what music they want to listen to rather than what images they should be looking at. Being in this ‘sonic bubble’ may in fact undermine some of the urban messages consuming us. Users may feel a sense of empowerment in being able to manage their own space. However, is this self-engaging empowerment a way of reclaiming personal space or further privatizing space and disconnecting society?

iPod and personal sonic device users may become so self-contained, operating without shared experiences – or within specific shared experiences – that they become disconnected from society. No real interaction takes place, as users continue to cocoon themselves from social life. Although not directly intended, the use of iPods and personal sonic devices can irreversibly cause social damage by blocking social interaction. Isolation properties related to sonic device use focuses on the individual user, creating a docile culture of branded users.

Personal sonic device and iPod users tend to ‘tune in and fade out’, that is their visual surroundings become insignificant as they isolate themselves within a sonic bubble. Listening to your own music player signals to other that you are unavailable and wish to be left alone. As such, the use of personal sonic devices continues to challenge the public/private dichotomy. Personal sonic device users continue to challenge this boundary by creating private spaces within public areas, and thus fulfilling their own interest. Just as people construct their own meaning of places, because places are socially constructed, so too do sonic device users.

Thus, personal sonic device users challenge the border of private/public as they bring the private sphere within public space. Although personal sonic devices have the potential to harm social interaction and communication, they can also be empowering to the individual user in reclaiming space. In a visually dominated society bombarded with advertisements, billboards, signs and cars, personal sonic devices give individual users power to control their private space by listening to the music they want and fade out their public visual surroundings. Of course this fading out can be detrimental for social interaction. Users isolate themselves from ‘outside’ interaction. Personal sonic devices may be somewhat beneficial to the user, but not so beneficial for the people who interact with them. Thus, it is important to realize the power technology may have, and it is our responsibility not to abuse its use. After all, there is no replacing real-time human interaction, and for this reason we should not let technology dictate our lives. Look, listen, and interact.