Did you know that the iPod is coming back? Yeah. The iPod. As Apple finally killed the iconic media player in 2022, a robust community had already been refurbishing and modding old 5^th-generation iPod videos for years. Turns out you can stuff a whole terabyte in those puppies. It’s pretty sick. Stick with me as I talk about how everyone should unsubscribe from Spotify and go buy an iPod right now.

I’ve talked about how I’m done with social media, but it isn’t the only thing that has us handcuffed to our phones. Smart phones do everything. They are far more than our communication devices, they are mobile bankers, they are game arcades, they are field guides for just about any bird or plant or animal we might come across on a weekend hike, and they are our cinemas and jukeboxes. The thing is, the streaming platforms we all rely on for our entertainment are all really fickle. As convenient as these platforms are, people are realizing that the corporations behind them do not care about customers. They will straight up delete albums, movies, television series, and not only that, but they will turn around and hike prices in the same breath.

In a world where the working class is getting really tired of paying a lot of money to consume media we do not even own, we are examining ways to find better fulfilment from entertainment. Zoomers and Gen Alpha have discovered the humble cassette and CD and Millennials are getting nostalgic for the days before our phones did everything. Audiophiles and film junkies have long been willing to shell out for spendy vinyl records, movie re-releases, and box sets that they can proudly display on a shelf, but for the people who care about the music but do not care about having that 12-inch by 12-inch record in their hand, what is there? How can they decentralize from their phones but also have their favorite music at-hand while they are on the go?

Yup. The iPod. It ticks the nostalgia box while also allowing people to decentralize from their smart phone. Take a break from being perpetually contactable. Leave the phone on the counter and put your iPod in your pocket instead. Digital singles and albums are cheaper than physical media and don’t take up any more room than a few megabytes on a hard drive. And if you’re like me and you kept all your CDs? A $20 external CD-RW that plugs into your computer makes it easy to digitize all your favorite albums. Whether you rip your CDs or buy your music in a digital format, the important thing is that you will own it. It’s yours. There is nothing that will take that little .mp3 file away from you. Dozens of musicians have pulled their music from Spotify for various ethical concerns, and current controversy surrounding Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s involvement with an arms manufacturing company may lead to another Spotify boycott. If you own the music you listen to outright, you don’t even have to worry about that. So go ahead. Dig your old iPod out of the closet. Slap a 1 TB flash drive in it and load it up. Grab your old Skull Candy headphones and enjoy a nice stroll through the park knowing that you do not give even a fraction of a shit about what tech CEOs are up to. You have gigabytes on gigabytes of My Chemical Romance and Taylor Swift to listen to.