I haven't been able to keep up with this thread of late because (1) last night was Saturday, in the name of Edna St. Don't-You-Ever-Go-out-on-the-Weekend, and (2) I awakened this afternoon to discover that an extremely decent family member is suffering from a shattering and painful illness. For that reason, my participation here is going to be limited until Tuesday.
To those who feel inclined to defend their choice of a DAP: The title of this thread is not "The Irony of Choosing a DAP Other Than an iPod," it's "The Irony of Calling iPod Users Sheep." The irony is not that one has chosen another kind of DAP, it is that one has made generalizations about the kind of person who makes another choice. It is amazing to me that certain posters on this thread have failed to comprehend this distinction and have simply assumed, from selective reading, that this is an iPod advocate's thread. Really, who cares which DAP one chooses? Twice on this thread, I've reiterated that I consider the iHP120 and 140 to be superior to any iPod; that, but for the cost, I'd have owned an iHP120 for the past few years.
Read before you post. I have not once suggested that the only reason people buy other DAPs is because they despise the iPod. If that is the argument you're responding to, then you haven't understood.
The specific irony I'm pointing to is this: The act of labeling everyone who uses a different player from yours as blind consumers makes you subject to exactly the same label you wish to apply to them. That irony is now underlined by hapless responses from pro-iPod, anti-iPod and neither/nor-iPod tribes defending their choices.
Yes, in an absolute sense, we are all sheep, all subject to consumer manipulation (to the degree that we feel we need to purchase luxury items). But that's not my point. This thread speaks to those who imagine they are escaping the consumer mindset by favoring one product over another. By declaring your branded tribe to be less mindless than another, you admit your own mindlessness. Prior to your unconscious confession, no admission was made.
It's saddening that attempts to refute my logic have revealed a too-rudimentary grasp of logic itself.
If argumentative posters had been paying attention, they could have made an obvious case against my position: If a person who calls people lemmings is also a lemming, then the person who calls people lemmings who call people lemmings is also a lemming. Therefore, scrypt, too, must be a lemming, correct?
I kept waiting for someone to make that point, since that would suggest a certain level of informed detachment. Unfortunately, no one did, and people got stuck in adolescent defenses of their pseudo-individuality.
What's amusing about the phrase "Think Different[ly]" is that it invites you to think in a conformist way while congratulating yourself on being nonconformist. What's even more amusing is the idea that refusing to Think Different means buying something other than what you're being told to buy and then congratulating yourself on being nonconformist. Whichever choice you make, by buying something and then buying into the idea of product decisions being an emblem of nonconformity, you're a posterfoont for the efficiency of cultural brainwashing.
Ultimately, nonconformity is expressed through your ideas -- by what you articulate -- not which luxury tribe you happen to buy into. The time we waste making eerily familiar generalities about groups of users would be better spent talking about particular DAPs and individual user experiences. Anyone can be insulted, judged and betrayed; there's no challenge in that. Trolling is not only a waste of time, it's a waste of trust.
But offering insights about your own experience and specific perceptions -- that's rather more interesting. The devil might be in the details, but so, my friend, are you.
