Several days before Christmas I covered the new counterculture craze of shopdropping.
A shopdrop has occurred in Maryland and it’s making national headlines as well as upsetting Fake Steve. A young girl thought she was getting an iPod for Christmas but upon opening the package found a note instead:
“Reclaim your mind from the media shackles. Read a book and resurrect yourself. To claim your capitalistic garbage go to your nearest Apple Store.â€�
The thing of it is IMO the iPod actually ENABLES people to “reclaim the mind from the media shackles�…
1) iPods allow people to take advantage of the long tail of music (contrast with radio or what a record store stocks)
2) iPods allow for ebooks and podcasts; often alternatives to mainstream media
3) Aside from the initial outlay, an iPod can help people build a music collection at a fraction the cost of buying hard-copy books or music
4) My guess is that from a sustainability standpoint, an iPod has a smaller footprint than publishing 100,000 paper backs
