The Walkman
Travel back to the 80s with us, where the portable cassette player was accused of turning people into “wind-up non-humans,” laws were passed to keep them off the streets, and one New Jersey man risked jail time for his right to walk with headphones.
EPISODE NOTES
• “Will Personal Headphones Lead To A World Of Silence?” UPI, Nov 30, 1981
• “Personal Stereos Causing Considerable Furor” UPI, Dec 10, 1981
• “Ear Plugging Is Epidemic” Mary McGrory, July 26, 1982
• “Let’s Ban The Walkman” The Montreal Gazette, Nov 1, 1983
• Is Google Making Us Stupid?, The Atlantic
• The End of Reflection, The New York Times
• Sherry Turkle’s Ted Talk
• Design Historian Stephen Bayley
• First, Drug Abuse; Now, Earphone Abuse, Chicago Tribune, August 1981
• The Personal Stereo Comes Under Attack Democrat and Chronicle December 1982, Rochester, NY.
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