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Some technological advancements filter slowly into social consciousness, while others automatically attract a subculture of users and quickly gain popularity to become part of mainstream society. Facebook and Youtube are examples of software applications that fit with the latter concept, while the IPod is a device that has quickly developed an important status for many in 21st century society. However, the widespread acceptance of the IPod has led to it becoming so much more than just a portable music device. Levy (2006, 23), notes that the design of the IPod as a portable device and the transparency of the screen allows users to easily broadcast their music tastes. Theoretically this device was designed to mobilise people's music libraries, however while achieving this it has also has contributed to a sub-cultural movement where one's "playlist is character" (Levy 2006, 5). Media devices then can have a more complex impact on society and individuals than their seemingly simplistic initial design purpose. McLuhan (1965, 8) argues that "the content of any medium is always another medium", which when related to the IPod example suggests that the content, i.e. Playlist, is a medium itself that also sends a message. New media technologies are therefore subject to their own evolutionary process where human creativity challenges the perceived limitations of new devices.


References:



Levy, S. 1996. Identity. In The perfect thing: how the ipod shuffles commerce, culture and coolness, 21-41. New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks.



McLuhan, Marshall. 1965. The medium is the message. In Understanding media : the extensions of man, 7-21. New York: McGraw/Hill.