By Katy Nguyen
Snap open your AirPod case, pop those bad boys in, connect to your Apple device and within seconds you welcome a flood of sound.
AirPods have taken Apple users across the world by storm, and for good reason. On-the-go, at home, at school, everywhere, AirPods are the best.
Admittedly, AirPods weren’t popular when they were released in December 2016 because of the strange design and technology, and the hefty $159 price tag didn’t make advertising any better. But after six months since the launch, Apple couldn’t keep up with demands and customers even waited six weeks to purchase AirPods. It’s understandable why the public became obsessed with AirPods.
AirPods allow you to listen to music, podcasts and other audio without getting tangled up in wires. The charging case comes with a 24-hour battery life, and it also fits right in the palm of your hand. Its first-of-its-kind and state-of-the-art Bluetooth connectivity and enhanced sound quality create a comfortable listening experience. All of these features are compact in the AirPods themselves and have revolutionized the earbud scene.
Any AirPod user can tell that you’ve never given AirPods a shot if you say they’re an overpriced and mediocre product. Once you’ve tried them, there’s no going back.
Say goodbye to the days of untangling earbud wires: the compactness and convenience of AirPods triumph over all earbuds.
By Justin Hsieh
AirPods are bad for society.
They epitomize the disconnection from reality for which our generation is (justifiably) criticized. They give wearers the ability to be completely oblivious to their immediate environment in a more seamless and inconspicuous way than ever before.
The difference between AirPods and conventional earbuds is that with wired earbuds, there is at least a visible commitment to disconnection. It takes sacrifice and a visual acknowledgment to shut out the outside world. With AirPods, there is no such transparency. Anyone who has ever had an entire conversation with another person, only for that person to turn around and reveal an AirPod in their other ear, knows exactly how disingenuous it can be to listen through AirPods.
The same qualities used to market AirPods – style, convenience, integration – are the exact reasons why they are so damaging at a societal level. They make it easy, normal and cool to disconnect from the people around you in favor of your Spotify queue. They are designed to blend into normal life. They condition us to forget the people we’re with and to accept being forgotten by the people we’re with.
