Rise In iPod Sales Causes Fall Of Western/Eastern Civilization

Comment from: Mr. Peabody
“…the explosion in the sales of iPods and other portable media devices is more than coincidental,’ …’” And yet coincidence is exactly what you have. Correlating data and making assumptions based on those correlations is not exactly high science, well actually it is, but – here’s the point, it takes years of repeated outcomes to even begin to say, with any degree of accuracy, that two desparate studies actually show demonstrative interactivity, especially social studies of any kind.

But you gotta love it anyway. Remember they did this with Niki because in the real world some people did in fact get shot and/or stabbed so that the robber could have the expensive shoes the victim was wearing. Of course I could probably incure the same treatment if I were to walk into the same violent area waving a $100 dollar bill too – And of course there was the little problem that during this period of time crime was actually going down – so… What?

One way or the other we’re going to demonize what’s popular in every generation: gadgets, music, art in general, blah blah blah. It’s not all bad because we should think about how loud we’re listening to our iPods, and how flagrantly we wave them around while walking down the street, or whether we can hear on-coming traffic or not, but the tone of all of these leaps to conclusions are that somehow this thing is single handedly responsible for the demise of western, eastern, northern and southern culture, and to that, or anything that implies that my personal responsbilities to myself and my fellow persons is not in my control is bunk. Be educated, be smart, assume repsonsibility for yourself and others, and throw crap like this where it belongs. — flush…

IN RESPONSE TO:

Friday, September 28, 2007 – 09:35 AM EDT  —  Apple Stock Quote: 154.50 (0.00, +0%)

Are Apple iPods responsible for violent iCrime wave?

Thursday, September 27, 2007 – 11:03 PM EDT

“The Urban Institute, a research organization based in Washington, has released an interesting report that suggests that the proliferation of iPods helps account for the nationwide rise in violent crime in 2005 and 2006,” Sewell Chan blogs for The New York Times. “The report suggests that ‘the rise in violent offending and the explosion in the sales of iPods and other portable media devices is more than coincidental,’ and asks, rather provocatively, ‘Is There an iCrime Wave?’”

Chan reports, “The report notes that nationally, violent crime fell every year from 1993 to 2004, before rising in 2005 and 2006, just as ‘America’s streets filled with millions of people visibly wearing, and being distracted by, expensive electronic gear.’”

Chan reports, “Of course, as any social scientist will tell you, correlation and causation are not the same thing. The report’s authors, John Roman and Aaron Chalfin, acknowledge in the report that ‘rigorous empirical tests’ of any theory for the two-year-old rise in violent crime ‘are not possible.’”

Chan reports, “But they offer three tantalizing observations… [along with] four reasons iPod owners might be particularly susceptible to crime.”

Full article here.

The “Is There an iCrime Wave?” report itself (pdf) is here.

MacDailyNews Take: Rather than blaming an inanimate object, we blame the criminals’ parents (or lack thereof).