Back to the Stone Age: Teen Trades iPod for Walkman

Teen trades his Apple for a Sony for 1 week
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 29, 2009 6:37 PM CDT
Back to the Stone Age: Teen Trades iPod for Walkman
A student works on his laptop as his iPhone lies beside it at a coffee shop in Columbia, Mo.   (AP Photo)

In honor of the debut 30 years ago this week of the Sony Walkman, 13-year old Scott Campbell tried using the device for a week in place of his iPod. Campbell found the gadget took some getting used to, he writes for the BBC: “It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape."

He also mistook the “metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equalizer”—not a switch for the two kinds of tape format. In general, the weight, short battery life, limited music selection and “hissy,” “warbly” sound reminded Campbell just how lucky he is to live in the digital age—though he noted the Walkman, unlike the iPod, contains two headphone jacks, “meaning the little music that I have, I can share with friends.” (More iPod stories.)

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