While it sometimes seems the whole world has rushed out to buy iPods, including President Bush, I will wait quite a while (and maybe forever) before buying one.  Why, you ask?  What could possess me to turn my back on this fashion statement, this technology revolution, this “iPod Oblivion” as a New York Senator recently called it?

5. Everyone and their mother has one. With iPods being sold at a rate of upwards of 40 million players per year (and growing!), pretty soon there won’t be anyone out there who doesn’t own one. You aren’t “cool” for using one, since by definition not everyone can be cool, but everyone has an iPod. The price of used iPods will keep dropping due to this, and you will be able to buy a used one for much cheaper.

I, like most people in the USA, love entertainment.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2004 we spent over $540 Billion entertaining ourselves (I include eating out at restaurants entertainment - we’ll discuss this in a different time and place). Although the last decade or so has seen many changes in the type of entertainment we prefer, one thing stays the same - we watch entertainment in order to:

• relax/de-stress
• laugh
• live a simulated life
• pass time