Wee Scott Campbell of Aberdeen, Scotland is 13 years old and sent us an email last week asking if he could write for us. He’s been doing pieces here and there but clearly what he lacks in physical age he makes up for in chutzpah. And so, much to my surprise, I wake up this morning to discover young Campbell on BBC comparing an iPod to a Walkman with his mum and generally impressing the heck out of us.
The bairn writes:
My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day.
He had told me it was big, but I hadn’t realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book.
When I saw it for the first time, its colour also struck me. Nowadays gadgets come in a rainbow of colours but this was only one shade – a bland grey.
So it’s not exactly the most aesthetically pleasing choice of music player. If I was browsing in a shop maybe I would have chosen something else.
From a practical point of view, the Walkman is rather cumbersome, and it is certainly not pocket-sized, unless you have large pockets. It comes with a handy belt clip screwed on to the back, yet the weight of the unit is enough to haul down a low-slung pair of combats.
Browsing in a shop! Ha! Scott, if you were browsing in a shop back in the 1980s they wouldn’t have noticed you simply because you would have been the germ of an impetirive in the heads of Mr. and Mrs. Campbell. However, hats off to you, young Scotsman, and, as they say, “Tak awa Aiberdeen an twal mile roun an far ar ye?,” for you, lad, are in it.
Well, the Walkman did come in different colors (maybe not the first version). Mine was red and I still have it and it still works to this day.
And you kids should get outta here and play outside. In my days, kids were not spending their time in front of a TV or their Internet and they weren’t that chubby….
Wait. Am I turninng old? :)
I say, let him write. Half the reviewed stuff is geared towards a 13 year old.
WTF ? a 13yo work 4 techcrunch? ok he’s an intern, but…
You guys running a sweatshop with 13 year old employees?
Have we learned nothing from Kathy Gifford!!
I’m not sure of the definition of intern but if it’s sending you an email asking if I can write for you then my email is on its way.
I’ve already put my time as a Techcrunch Intern on my CV. It was a good, if brief, experience but feel like I learned a lot.
Sorry, *CrunchGear* Intern.
For a second there my CV was lying about the fact that I had worked at Techcrunch.
This is great. Reminds me of the old days when I had a walkmen. I think I might go look for mine and play it just to see how it was. Now if I could only find a tape to play…..
http://ziggytek.com/
Does anyone expect iPods to still be working like this walkman does 30 years from now?
Good for him. Not particularly sure if the interest is because of his age or his heritage, but I can’t wait to hear more from him
why is everyone treating walkmans (walkmen?) as if they were on the same scale as steam engines and phonographs? i put mine down just 4-5 years ago, only after mp3 players stopped being gimp and overpriced. and all my cassettes are still with me, because, guess what, there’s still a device that can play them and it’s called a CASSETTE PLAYER.
horrifying how quickly the consumerist societies outdate everything.
güzel bir haber okumaya değerdi….
There can be some benefits to owning a Walkman:
At least you know if you left the Walkman somewhere, it would still be there when you returned. Can’t say the same for the iPod.
No problems with song formats or DRMs either.
Wouldn’t have to install a Mega Goliath iTunes on your computer either to get songs.
If your computer crashed, you would still have your songs.
You wouldn’t accidently wash your Walkman either.
Please add to this…
I think if you put aside the fact that this is a child that is pointing out the aesthetic differences in the walkman verses the Ipod, you can not deny that when it comes to technology, things become outdated at a time warp speed, in comparison to other things. Now the changes that take place may be great, but lasting…well that is another story, which may be do to its shelf life of what is not obsolete.
I know him, and he is a pretty horrible person.
He got expelled from our school.
It was a good article, but he kind of ruined it.