More Connected Than We Thought

This whole wireless thing is very odd. Maybe if I had more of an understanding of the technology, I wouldn't be so amused by the fact that I can pick up network "stephen" in my apartment. Or that now -- sitting in the school library -- I can share music with "Dave" (everything from Britney Spears to Yo-Yo Ma) and "Eren" (a lot of rock and alternative).

I look through my iTunes playlist as a stranger might. What kinds of assumptions are other users making about my music? One person connected to my playlist, though only briefly. Did this person see Kylie Minogue -- sandwiched between Kurt Elling and Les Savy Fav -- and think, there's nothing to work with here?

I see a lot of top 40 stuff, like N'Sync and Avril Lavigne, in other people's playlists. Some other bands that are popular right now, like everyone seems to have some songs from The Killers or The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I assume that the people with music from bands like Weezer, Blur or 311 are older, music that I listened to in high school.

And there seems to be an art to the naming of one's playlist. Not just generic stuff like So-and-So's Music (the iTunes default) but "Music from the 8th floor" or "Gloves found owner missing?" There was even one -- and I should have noted the specific wording -- that seemed to be a message to someone telling him where to go.

Filed in: Technology