Bull's article is about the use of personal stereo equipment to alter ones perception of time, travel and each other in the modern world. I found the interview segments particularly interesting because of how important the interviewees made their walkmans in their lives. I remember when walkmans first came out in the UK; they were the must have accessory for anyone (and insanely expensive!). I didn't experience owning a walkman until I was around 14 and portable CD players were the new big thing. It is true that the novelty of being able to listen to music while you are going about your daily business makes it all more tolerable somehow. Bull talks about how people tend to 'zone out' of their actual environment, especially when traveling. Having worked in London I know that's true. However, while I was reading the interviews with the people who ride the tube everyday I couldn't help wondering if this activity is as prevalent now after the 2005 bombings as it was then. I lived in London in 2006-7 and rode on the tube often, I noticed more people doing things that didn't involve headphones (reading, playing on a ds or phone) than a carriage full of people listening to personal stereos. I feel like a lot of the novelty of owning a portable music device has worn off. I understand that Bull wanted to interview people that use their walkmans often but I feel like he's looking at a one-sided sample. All the people he interviewed seemed to be crazy about their walkmans; needing the music to wake them up and put them to sleep. Certainly, I went through a phase in my teenage years where I was plugged into some kind of device 24/7 but no longer. I wish that Bull had included some interviews with people who own walkmans but don't use them all the time. I feel that he would have gathered some interesting insights into how people view their days when they use them compared to when they forget them at home.
The interviews with 'Mandy' from page 31 onwards were particularly interesting because she seemed to use her walkman as a device to shape the world around her. Mandy felt that by listening to her walkman while she was travelling that she was never really alone and she used the landscape of what she saw (or did not see) and the soundscape of her stereo to create her own world. This personal anecdotal evidence was far more interesting to me than most of what Bull said because the personal interviews give me a way to connect to the article. I started to think about my own use of walkmans in the past and why I don't really use one anymore but when I did use one it was used as a tool to shield me from others and as a way to pass the time on boring commutes. Examining my past through this one lens makes me think about the choices I made back then in how I chose to spend my time. It makes me nostalgic on the one hand and annoyed on the other because in a way I never really interacted with what was around me. In short, I think the interview segments within Bull's article are what really made it work for me because it provided an emotional link which led me to analyse my own use of personal stereo devices.
Pretty good, and I like the inclusion of your own experiences. You are a very thoughtful writer.
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