The Portable CD Player

I didn’t bring a Portable CD Player to class last Wednesday. I didn’t even bring a picture of this. But it’s what I wanted to bring. Before I get into the CD Player, it’s probably important to mention what I brought to class and how I considered it similar. The picture I ended up sharing with my group was one that others also had: the Gameboy Color. It defined my childhood for many of the same reasons that the CD Player did: it was a way for me to engage in an activity alone wherever I was. And it was also something that was within my own control as a child, especially when considering that many home computers, especially my family’s first one at age eight, were shared spaces. My mother’s internet and my internet were the same internet. I brought the Gameboy Color as an alternative to the Portable CD Player because both gave me some independence and agency as a child. Both were also portable and could me my own private space regardless of where I was.

So that’s why I thought the Gameboy Color a ready equivalent.

However, here’s the pic I should have brought:

The Portable CD Player is great and I own three.

I actually owned this same exact SONY device, except mine was a neon green/yellow and black combo. I can’t find a very clear  image in my quick perusal of the internet but I’m sure if you type in something like what I described in the google toolbar you’ll find it.

Who was the intended user of this device?

Unlike the Gameboy Color, I would argue that the Portable CD Player was meant for all ages, genders, and races. The Gameboy Color tended to be geared towards children, at least in an American context. The gaming market was also considered more of a niche market (as it still is today) and is thus not often marketed as a more everyday-man object as I feel the Portable CD Player was.

Music is a popular medium and is thought to be enjoyed universally, even by animals and plants. We’ve discussed in class about how technology is often considered more masculine and that many more men than women work in technology today. However, what makes the Portable CD Player so intriguing is that it was meant for everybody to use, not just an elite minority. Thus, when crafting the SONY we see above, executives were probably understanding the consumer of such a technological product as their neighbor, their child, their partner.

The Portable CD Player also seemed to foretell the future of more generally-used technologies. Portable and light was the future of our technology, as the iPod and today’s smart phones and tablets reflect. The Portable CD Player represents the period of time when access to technology was becoming easier and easier. No longer were elites the only ones able to use technology. Now, me, an 8 year old girl, could listen to music wherever I wanted. I could pick and choose what I wanted to listen to and create my own library of CDs.

With my early uses of technology, I don’t remember how gender informed my choices, but how portability, independence, and an awakening sense of self really started my attachment to technology, especially music technologies in general (Seriously, my iTunes library was the pride and joy of my teen years). Was my access to technology limited because I was a female? Probably yes. The Gameboy Color is much easier to discuss in terms of gender and age discrimination, but the aspects of the Portable CD Player which seemed to be predicting the future of technology is much more fun to consider in terms of what technology means to me.