Walkman, at 30, a mystery to teen

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Wed July 1, 2009 | Alejandro Martinez-Cabrera

[posterchild]

What better way to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Sony's iconic Walkman than to ask a teenager for some feedback on the device?

The BBC couldn't think of one, and neither can I.

I like to imagine that the experience was similar to an archaeologist rediscovering how a recently excavated artifact was employed thousands of years ago. But I'm well aware that it must have been different for 13-year-old Scott Campbell, who co-edits his own news Web site. For one, teenage impatience must have stood in the place where I fantasize scientific curiosity should have been.

"My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day," Campbell wrote. "He had told me it was big, but I hadn't realized he meant that big. It was the size of a small book."

[La Lydia]

I still use mine. Blush.

[StormEye]

The young ....

[parsifal]

I have a Sony Watchman! Guess i would have to have a converter box now. It was fun while it lasted.

parsy, who hates to throw it away

[wastedyears]

I can’t remember if I still have one. I also used CD players when they were the in-thing, and before MP3 players had good features and wide-spread use.

[mamelukesabre]

The walkman was audio cassettes. Why would any kid know about it?

However, they might have heard about a diskman, and a handcam.

I never owned an actual walkman. I had a panasonic version that was better than a walkman...but much heavier.

[OCC]

"My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day,"

It was, except you had 120 minutes of music max, and buy lots of batteries!.

[Psycho_Bunny]

The stupid thing about this article - other than the “hip now” little attitude - the REALLY stupid thing, is that the author seems oblivious to the fact that Sony still makes “Walkmans”: they’re MP3-player phones and they’re arguably better than iPods.

[smokingfrog]

I use mine almost every day. It's plugged into my computer audio input so I can listen to talk radio through my computer speakers. Occasionally, I'll I'll buy an old cassette tape and record the songs I like to my hard drive.

[posterchild]

Bought an ipod in 2003 with my first mac (when I learned that OS X was really a Unix system). Didn’t buy my first CD until 2005 though - had used cassettes with my 1987 car and my old panasonic walkman knockoff until then.

[posterchild]

Had a Panasonic knockoff for many years. Used it to listen to Rush while on a Univ. campus. He was the voice of sanity in my ear.

[posterchild]

So used to the ‘hip now’ attitude in such articles I barely notice it anymore.

[wastedyears]

The only thing I don’t like about modern stuff is that it doesn’t do AM radio.

[StarfireIV]

I found using a Rockman more fun, but then again, there are smaller plug-in amplifiers that don’t take 9 AA batteries.

[Free Vulcan]

Little punk stain, making fun of how big and heavy our Walkmans were. Yeesh.

Didn’t he know we had to wear it while we went to and from school every day, uphill both ways in the snow?

Kids think they have it so rough these days.

[radiohead]

I still have my Walkman and used it religiously until just a few years ago when fellow FReepers convinced me to get an MP3 player. I love not having to travel with a stack of tapes and batteries.

I loved my cheap little MP3 player and it suited my needs. I refused to buy an iPod due to a blend of not enough money and dislike of Apple.

However, when someone showed me their iTouch (an iPhone w/o the phone) I was hooked and bought one the same day. It is an amazing bit of machinery. I feel like I’m in Star Trek every time I use it. I’ve got music, newspapers, internet, all kinds of cool apps, and books on it. I love it and think it was worth the price. I still take my old MP3 player to the gym, but my iTouch is becoming “my little friend” very quickly.

[gigster]

I use my Sony Walkman SRF-59 almost daily.
It only gets AM-FM.

[ADemocratNoMore]

Gee, when I was Juniors age I was recording on my Olson reel to reel tape deck - 7” mono. I still own 3 10” reel to reel decks, unfortunately the lubricants they used have turned into something like superglue. Wonder what he would make of my Elcasette deck?.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

However, when someone showed me their iTouch (an iPhone w/o the phone) I was hooked and bought one the same day. It is an amazing bit of machinery. I feel like I’m in Star Trek every time I use it. I’ve got music, newspapers, internet, all kinds of cool apps, and books on it. I love it and think it was worth the price.

That's when you know you've found a truly great innovation - something you never wanted, but now that you have it, you don't want to do without it. I felt the same way the first time I tried TiVO.

I had a Walkman when I was a kid. I'd blast Thomas Dolby and the Thompson Twins on it at home, but it was much too big and ate batteries too quickly to be really mobile. I still remember buying metal cassettes with the money from my allowance, expecting to hear a big difference over normal cassettes - no such luck.

[ERJCaptain]

Here's me with my Walkman... ;)