iPods banned in Sydney school for breeding "social isolation"

So it's not like this is the first we're hearing of The Fear that technology will destroy the fabric of all social life. But it's the first we've heard of a school actually banning iPods as a result of that fear. Students attending Syndney, Australia's private International Grammar School are being asked either to leave the white gadgets at home, or to place them in a locked drawer during the duration of the school day — because they enable students to "avoid communication with others" and may lead to "social isolation or escape from our community." Somehow we doubt teenagers' desire to escape from the community originated with the iPod, and we also doubt there will be a mass communication breakdown no matter how much they turn up the Zeppelin. But hey, now the students can bond over how much this ban sucks, and that's community right there, folks.

[Via iPod lounge]

[Guido @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

And walkmans were invented how many years ago...?

[jands @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

This is unrelated but I'm pretty sure I missed something. Can someone please tell me what happnend to Carmi? Yesterday I kept reading comments about him being gone, did he say something? WHAT DID I MISS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[Oliver @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

This is excellent news. there's nothing like a bit of banning to really drive adoption...

[Sergio @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Ditto on #1

[gorkon @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Breeds social isolation? I have seen them BUILD community. For example, the Podcasting community among one of them. When you go out and someone sees your white ear buds you are in the in crowd.

[Kesey @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

I'm all for iPods and technology, but what if you walked into a lunch room of dead silence because everyone was listening to their iPod. That's just weird man.

[Baz @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

I don't know about everyone else, but when I was in highschool, we weren't allowed to walk around with portable electronics of *any* kind. No radios/CD players/etc. Are these kids sitting in class and listening to music?

[Andy @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

I almost agree with this, iPods are great, but I would be concerned if my kid wasn't making any friends because he was listening to his iPod on all of his downtime...

Wow, imagine how annoying it must be to be a teacher at this point, if not just for cell phones.

And yeah, walkmans have been around for a while, but the iPod is a different beast. At the very least, it's vastly more popular right now than walkmans, so I don't find it unfair to be gunning for the iPod. I highly doubt that the school only has an agenda against the iPod itself.

[asidreflux @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

I went to this school where a dress code was required. Hence, polo and top name clothing were desired and worn. For the poor kids, who's parents basically could barely afford tuition, you could "feel" their alienation. I think rules like these have their place. However, the flip side is that rules like these can also have the tendency to just exacerbate the overall stigma as well.

Second of all, "breeding a community" is a main reason for this ban. The building of a community means isolation in return for the others on the outside of the community. It is one thing to build a community in the real world (i.e. Podcast), but in school systems I can see why this would be a concern. Social interaction and social segregation among peers is a much more intense concern in grade school then it is, say in college. While there are exceptions to the general rule, you can be fat in college and at work, with minimal social or peer consequences, but in grade school and the like, you will pay quite dearly. This was a grammar school, not a college campus, there is a large difference.

[asidrephlux @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Maybe they just stick their heads in their lockers, and jam out in between periods. Just imagine the hallway view.

[darx @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

In my school, we arn't allowed any electronic items. This being: gameboy, ds, psp, mp3 players, cell phones...etc If they find your using your cell phone, or if it rings. They get to use your minutes.

[acidreflux @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

I guess they still do the "frighten" and "no rules apply to them" tactics in schools with students. "Use your minutes", oh my, I remember tactics like that when I went to school. They never did enforce it, because they knew that they never could.

[Iannn @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

This isn't that big news. Certainly at my schools and other schools in the district all electonical music players are banned anyway and have to be placed in a locker.

Looking at the nature of the school, the attendees will *probably* be richer and be able to afford ipods. The majourity of them own them and therefore instead of banning audio equipment, they've just said ipods are banned. Hec, I wouldn't be suprised if the person who banned them thinks that an ipod is the product catagory name for an mp3 player. Whats all the fuss?

Its very annoying when everyone is listening to their music and not socialising. I support this ban.

[Desert @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Glad to see the United States isn't the only country heading towards fascism.

[some dude @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Gimmie a break. You're in school to learn and socialize. iPod's don't help with either.

[Kelly Stark @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Kids shouldn't take $300 toys to school for security reasons, if nothing else. iPods, cell phones, and the like have no business in school.

[Mark @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Guess they'll have to isolate themselves from their idiotic peers the way like-minded geeks have been doing since just about forever: books!

I do recall having a teacher yell at me once in Elementary school for choosing to take a book with me to recess.

[Eric Rice @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Ban the internet! Because it looks like we're doing nothing! Woo!

[Mike Perry @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

I agree with the poster who points out that we go to school "to learn and socialize." Given that purpose, this ban makes good sense. The shrillness in the original blog posting--"The Fear that technology will destroy the fabric of all social life:--illustrates what happens to those whose primary contact with the world is electronic. They demonize those they can't understand. (Recall the Deaniacs.)

Tolkien was right to link some evils to machines, whether it's the "One Ring to rule them all" or the iPod to isolate and exclude. For the latter, check out "The Age of Egocasting," by the pretty Christine Rosen at: http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/7/rosen.htm

--Mike Perry, Untangling Tolkien

[Pluto's Dad @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

So...
Now when are they going to ban Dungeons and Dragons? That breeds social isolation more than anything.

;o)

[honifer @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

I don't think that iPods or electrical gadgets are the cause of "non"-social behaviour. If someone doesn't want to talk to anyone, they won't talk to anyone. If they're listening to their iPod (wonder why iPods are targeted?) and someone wants to talk, and they also want to talk, they switch it off and talk..

having 'things' to play with in school is just an outlet for people that either have no one to talk to at that time or just don't feel like talking.

Plus, in break time people can do what they want (respecting laws and human rights) can't they? Surely a more constructive thing to do would be to give kids something else to do such as clubs and societies?

[MikeTheLibrarian @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Speaking of Tolkien....

Books do the same thing. They allow students to do something other than learn from their teachers and socialize with their peers. If you have a book and feel like it, you can just sit and read and ignore the rest of the world. For pleasure books (I loath the term "Reading Books") are rightly banned during classtime, and iPods should be as well. However, its silly to prohibit students from using either books or iPods during their free time during the day.

[The False God @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

"Gimmie a break. You're in school to learn and socialize. iPod's don't help with either."

No, you're in school to learn the subjects presented. Socialization is an afterthought. Teachers are not there to make sure you hook up with friends.

Lots of high schoolers THINK it's about socialization, which explains the low scores our students get.

[mike @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

gorkon..geeks don't count..

i have an iPod and i've noticed this in my own behaviour.. how else do you explain 4 or 5 people in a subway sitting beside each other, each in his and her own little worlds gazing off into nothing in particular as Astronomy Domine rings between their ears...

As trippy as it is to listen to music in public.. fuck it's anti social as hell..

Should iPods be banned? well, duh, of course not.. but there is some merit to what they are trying to say.. Portable Music in general is anti-social

[Eric @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Ditto MiketheLibrarian--

I was an unsocial geek in jr. high & high school, but I used sci-fi novels, not an iPod.

[the @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

okay, i have an iPod, and love it, and if this ban happened to me (when i was in secondary education [below college/university, im in canada and dont know if you know the term secondary education]) i would have been so pissed. i just dropped 300-400 on a music device and i cant bring it to school? but all the kids with their cd players are just chillin there with their cds? i would be flippin out! and as it would go against everything i stand for i would probably go buy a creative jukebox just to piss them off, its a similar deal, but it is allowes? they should not just ban one device, I could still be anti-social with a cd player.

[the @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

sorry, i forgot to ask this: did they just ban the iPod, is the mini and the shuffle fair game?

[Ron Moses @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

"...no matter how much they turn up the Zeppelin." Damn, I feel old now. My 15-year old and her friends have no idea who Led Zeppelin were, and certainly don't have any in their mp3 players. Zep may as well have been The Glenn Miller Orchestra for all they know about them. Although she did ask me the other day if I ever heard a song called "Stairway to Heaven." Yes, dear, I have. Oh God, I have.

[Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

I'm 16, and I'm an avid listener of the zep. I also listen to The Glenn Miller Orchestra sometimes. Walk into any high school today, and you'd be amazed at how many kids are wearing zeppelin shirts.

[Stephen Crosby @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

How much time to kids have to sit around and listen to iPODs at school anyway? Hopefully only lunchtime. Kids can do what they want when they get out of school, but when they're at school there are rules to follow (ie dress code, boundaries, rules of conduct, etc.).

Besides, the school most likely had a specific ban on CD, minidisc, and tape players and needed to extend the ban to keep up with the times. If that's the case, this is total non-news, but I don't care to register for the Sydney Morning Herald web site to find out for sure.

[swissfondue @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Oh well, there still is hope that the motorola iTunes phone will be out soon. They didn't ban mobile phones as well did they? Because what about the "social isolation" of kids sms'n during break or on the phone as soon as class finishes.

[Cuba @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Is it just the iPod that is banned or all DAPs?

[gasman @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Those iPods, they breed like rabbits. Oh woops, didn't read the whole title. :P

[Chris @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

its spelt Sydney NOT Syndney

[nyc @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Australia fucking sucks, the whole country is a shithole filled with ignorant morons who think up ridiculous things to ban every day. The country is a stifling draconian backwater of epic proportions.

[Stephen Crosby @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

When was the last time you went to australia nyc? I'm guessing you've never been, and I'm right.

Go ahead and take your national superiority complex back to France or wherever you came from.

[Weebly @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

"When was the last time you went to australia nyc? I'm guessing you've never been, and I'm right.

Go ahead and take your national superiority complex back to France or wherever you came from."

He's right Australia is really Draconian, they ban and censor everything here. They can legally too, cos we don't have any rights other than to vote and freedom of religion. Take your national superiority complex back to Wagga Wagga.

[Palehorse @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Nice work panning a country you think you know something about, nyc.

Anyway when I was in school a few of the teachers would let people listen to discmans and such in class, while we were working - this was good, because we could cut out distraction and just get the hell on with what we were doing. As long as people do this I don't really see what the big deal would be, but then schools tend to ban everything that's popular anyway.

[sanJ @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

haha, if this happened at my school (yeah like they have any power over us in that respect - we are meant to have our phones off all the time but we always play with them during school hours) then me and all my friends who i steered away from iPos machines after i was burnt twice by them can laugh and say "its not an ipod, its an iriver, and we arent listening to music, we're watching season 3 scrubs/family guy/futurama" :-)

[Elvoid @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

If someone told me that I couldn't use my cellphone in school and that if seen using it or if it rang that they would get to use my minutes; I would tell them to sod off or pay my bill. As for the Ipod or other portable music players. I would listen to my discman in class while I was working (wasn't supposed to) and they were never the wiser. Also as other people have said, I can ignore people and read my book, generally reading Wheel of Time is a lot more interesting than 3 to the 5th power x 2. Especially after a test.

[tim @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

ok you know what screw you all that think ipods, cell phones, and cd players should be banned from schools and they make you "anit social" what about the loners!!! i mean if they are always avoided in school then let them have cd players i mean i always have my music and its always on. music is whats keeping me alive! personally if they ban cd players, ipods, and cell phones i think alot of kids will be fucking pissed and probably do something like the kids did at saint john boscos or columbine. the schools could easily avoid that by just allowing cd players and all that other shit i mean come on GIVE US KIDS A BREAK!!!!

[tim @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

ok you know what screw you all that think ipods, cell phones, and cd players should be banned from schools and they make you "anit social" what about the loners!!! i mean if they are always avoided in school then let them have cd players i mean i always have my music and its always on. music is whats keeping me alive! personally if they ban cd players, ipods, and cell phones i think alot of kids will be fucking pissed and probably do something like the kids did at saint john boscos or columbine. the schools could easily avoid that by just allowing cd players and all that other shit i mean come on GIVE US KIDS A BREAK!!!!

[Jade @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

I think this is a little out of hand. i am in highschool and you can use your iPod in class as long as you are studying for something. you can record lectures and put them on your iPod. They can be used for good purposes, not just for entertainment. I am not saying hey, lets delete all the music off of them and put our teachers boring lectures on them, but if you tell your teacher about it you can use the lecture for tests because its a creative idea. Our class gets to. Now Duke does the same thing. I get to use it on tests. Since iPods have actual audiobooks on them you can download it on your iPod that you are reading in class, and hey most books you read in school are boring, but thats my point of veiw, they can be used for good purposes. I am not some study freak because of it im still am a cheerleader that gets average grades, but it helped me study and focus more on rasing my grades and getting good test scores..Jade

[Taffy @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Hey Guys, I attend IGS in Sydney Australia. Too clear a few things up, when they say �Ipods�, they mean all music players, the people who laid down the ban are just not knowing with the language of MP3's players and other potable music devices, and so the ban sounds very product specific when in fact it is a blanket ban. Secondly it wasn�t that big a thing, I can�t understand what a big fuss everyone is making over it. A lot of kids WERE pissed, mostly because we attend school 5 days a week and it knocks out a lot of use time. Personally I don't think they were leading to social isolation, but hey it's a private school, so they can ban whatever they want, and if I don't like it, then I can leave, but I don't mind really, it's an awesome school. ps that guy who said Australian's are ignorant, ha! At least on average, 100% of Australians can find Australia on the world map, can the same be said for you population and your country? The answer is no, now who is ignorant?

[unknown @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Hey, i got to IGS aswell and im all 4 what no. 44 said. it wasnt such a big deal n my frends got over it, so why dont u?

[Sasha @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

And another thing to the guy who thinks hes too old. At IGS we LOVE Led Zepplin, well most of us do

[Middle school teacher @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

It's hard to blame these teachers. I work at a middle/high school in the U.S., and some students just want to surf the Web and IM each other on their school-provided laptops all day long. Additionally, students can use technology to cheat if it allows them to communicate with one another. Even an Ipod could cause problems. Imagine storing all the answers to a test in the names of your MP3s or in the memory bank of your graphing calculator...

[Chloe_Crabtree-Currently studying BA Graphic Image Making @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

The Sony Walkman, was introduced in 1979. If you want to know the exact date. But regarding to the Present day we are at the peak of portable music,and so schools are deciding to ban the ipod. This is purly a cry out to society. The era of portable music has risen at such a speed we are now able to to carry up to 2,000 songs with you if you choose. So convient and socially stylish, to import music and work all to your ipod. At just one touch of a button. The new ipod Mini comes in five cool colours and is even smaller and lighter than the pevious ipod and still holds 1,000 songs. My argument is why would anyone ban one?

[Rachael @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Dude...that's retarded...

[Music Freak @ Dec 19th 2005 1:22AM]

Dude, music keeps people socail, I think. It gives them something to talk about. How do think the bandies get along so well?