In 1867, Alfred Nobel patented the world’s first dynamite. It was great, until the World War I made full use of it in 1914.
In 1925, Thomas Midgley Jr. invented leaded petrol and CFC’s. The world was excited with the mass production of air-con, until in 1970 James Lovelock looked up the sky and noticed the Ozone hole…

In 2001, Apple released the first iPod. This is their concept (picture taken from wired.com)

Steve Jobs announced it as a product with a 5 GB hard drive that “puts 1,000 songs in your pocket”. Meaning, if you purchase each song from iTunes for 1$ , Steve Jobs will “pull 1,000$ out of your pocket”.

But that’s not the reason why I name Portable Music Player one of the worst inventions in 21st century. Let’s see why people use their portable-music-player:

1- To listen to favorite songs
2- To listen to pre-recorded tapes (conversations, news..)
3- To listen to audio books
4- To kill time
5- To reduce ambient noise

Number 1: Don’t do this. If the song is your favorite, please get it played well. Live shows are the best; next is audio-theater, at least 4.1 speakers; after that is a high-end headphone with noise-reduction. Listening your favorite songs on a 20$ low-end headset is a waste. Remember, favorite things are to be done in favorite ways, at favorite moments :D

Number 2: This is great. Some people don’t have enough time to listen to news and conversations, and PMP is a great tool for getting information. Be cautious though. Listening to a detailed article when driving is considered unsafe. However I still prefer reading the article, since reading is 5 times faster than listening.

Number 3: This is OK. You can listen to an audio book of your favorite novels. But it is still better to read a book or novel on paper, so that you can pause whenever you want, re-read some interesting dialog, or just let your imagination immerse into the plot.

Number 4: No! Don’t use your portable music player for killing time. Consider the alternatives: If you spend your free time chatting with your friend, you will be more gregarious and friendly. If you spend your free time playing games, you will be more reflexive and agile.

Number 5: You think it does, but it doesn’t. In order to reduce ambient noise, your player should have a higher level of noise, thus the situation is unchanged.

Mostly people will fall to number 4 - using Portable music player to kill time or to get some privacy. They sit in the train, listen to the songs, their eyes rolling randomly as if people around are inorganic, their minds wandering from the lyrics to some impulsive thoughts, their body remains still as if they are sleeping.. Don’t be those people.

All in all, if you have a Portable Music Player, either use it wisely, or

give it to me :P