Prying Their iPods Away From Them

Don't get me wrong; I do love my iPod. It's an older one, a big old 30 GB video model. I listen to it on my long subway commute everyday. I have like 3,000 pictures, 1,400 songs, and a few videos on there.
I'm on the older end of this Techie Computer Generation. I grew up with a computer. In high school, I played a lot of DOS-run "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" and chatted in Prodigy chatrooms. I went through university using early Wiki and Google. I had cell phones (big clunky ones) and handheld video games (I still have a Nintendo DS, which also helps on those long commutes).

But I do NOT understand the utter dependence some of my kids have on their earphones. (Don't even get me started on them and their phones - texting each other to meet up in the bathrooms, taking pictures in class, even flat-out answering the phone in class! Phones and portable video games could be whole other entries). The school policy is no electronic equipment during class time or they are confiscated until the end of the day.

Some deterrant. Every single day, I am plucking earphones out of their ears, or spotting that tell-tale white cord sneaking up their neck from where they have so cleverly hidden it under their shirt. They moan and argue and whine about how much they 'need' their ipods. Some say the music helps them focus. Many of them say, "But miss, it's not even on!" So why keep them in your ears?

And it makes me think of my own reliance on my portable music. As soon as I slide into a subway seat, turning on my ipod is the instinctive next move. Since when did the relative peace and quiet of listening to our own thoughts become so unbearable? Why is there the need for that constant background noise?