Sarah of Neek Talk posts about Apple selling 100 million iPods. It's a good post. She concisely describes why these sales make sense to her.

I have an old guy's question. Why does anyone want to have earplugs with sound? Besides serving as white noise, doesn't the sound interfer with thinking clearly, with problem solving, with learning something from what's going on immediately around the hearer?

If the answer is, "No," then why don't commercial aircraft and fighter pilots wear them while on duty? What am I missing?

Yes, I'm serious and saddened by what I see. People who plug into mobile sound seem to miss so much of what's exciting about life by intentionally creating distractions for themselves. That's good for me, because such distractions reduce the number of serious competitors for things I may want.

Tablet PC Education Blog