Despite all the media attention, for Duke freshmen, the much-disputed iPod is just another piece of the roiling bustle of newness that is college.
A quick run through the smattering of open doors on the second floor of Blackwell Dormitory on a Wednesday night reveals a startling observation. Upperclassmen’s jealousy and pitched battles over the efficacy of Duke’s expenditures aside, some freshmen are beginning to put their new possessions to their intended purposes—and others aren’t using them at all.
“Well, it’s out of the box,” freshman Teresa Rice joked. “But that’s about it.”
On the other hand, her roommate, Chrissy Devore, has used her iPod to record everything from Sunday’s a capella jam and Saturday’s Hoof ‘n’ Horn freshman cabaret to course lectures and Chapel Dean William Willimon’s last series of sermons at Duke. She even managed to capture a little piece of President Richard Brodhead at the dessert reception he hosted Monday night.
“Hi. This is Richard Brodhead saying hello to Chrissy Devore. You seem to be the most advanced user of the iPod in your entire class, so I’m full of admiration. Have a great time at Duke,” the president quipped with his characteristic joviality.
For those who have applied their iPods to academic purposes, recording and schedule storage seem to have become the most useful features. “I might not use it that often without the recorder,” freshman Regina Liu confessed. Currently she uses her new iPod to record her lecture classes, citing good sound quality. The five pages of notes she may glean from a second listen supplement the notes she takes in class. “[This class is] a lot of opinions and points of view, [so] I don’t get to jot down everything in class,” she added.
Not everyone has found their iPods so useful in academic pursuits. Freshman Marc Champaloux conceded that the audio quality was “alright,” but that, of the lectures he had recorded so far, page rustlings and coughing had taken precedence over course material. “It depends on how loud your professors speak—and how loud everyone else talks,” he concluded.
A few doors down, Shivam Joshi indicated that none of his classes thus far had been “the sort of lectures you need to record,” though he expressed certainty that he would, at some point, put his iPod to recording use.
With the mayhem of the first week of classes feeling somewhat overwhelming and only six courses officially involving the use of the new technology, iPods, for many, have blended quickly into the background. “A lot of my residents haven’t even taken them out of the box,” said junior Jennifer Williams, a second-floor residential advisor.
The most common use of the little white rectangles is, of course, downloading music, but even in this popular pursuit, actuality seems to have side-stepped Duke’s intentions for the program. Few Blackwell residents claimed to have made much use of the University-sponsored iTunes site beyond the 10 free songs offered as a lure to all undergraduates. Most preferred instead to continue with previous software or simply transfer songs from their own CDs to a more portable package. Moreover, freshmen in Blackwell said iTunes can be confusing and expensive for many in pursuit of downloads, Duke-sanctioned or otherwise.
Although Duke’s iPods have not been on campus long enough for these dorm residents to pass any concrete judgments on the successes or failures of the program, the devices have nonetheless managed to impact the traditional social scene in small, but reverberating manners. The clamor of upperclassman envy has left many freshmen hearing things—and perhaps feeling just a little more singled out when clutching their slim white boxes.
“I don’t carry my iPod around East much, because I know people here, and I want to talk to them,” Devore said. “But I feel like whenever I’m walking around West with it out... I’m wearing a big target on my back.”
The new technology has even encroached upon those sacred few weeks at the beginning of all freshman years, when introducing yourself to a stranger is a little less daunting. “I was thinking about taking my iPod this morning on the bus but didn’t, because I realized that I wouldn’t meet anyone,” Joshi said. “Then I didn’t meet anyone anyways, because everyone else brought theirs.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.