The iPod of its day

This summer marks the 30th anniversary of the invention of the Sony Walkman. Happy birthday, friend! Sony publicists are milking this moment for all its worth. I imagine this is because they’re gambling that no one will remember the Walkman at all when its next big birthday rolls around. Good press is one way to move stock: The Sony SRF-59 Radio Walkman is currently the 183rd most popular electronics product on Amazon, ranking it well above both the Roomba and the Hitachi Magic Wand vibraror. Or so I’ve been told.

The BBC News Magazine honored this great occasion with an essay by an eloquent thirteen-year-old (a clever ploy for publications that can’t afford to pay adult journalists…and don’t have access to monkeys). It took young Scott Campbell three days to figure out that the tape he was given had two sides. This wasn’t the only thing that confused him. “I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette,” he writes. “I’m relieved that the majority of technological advancement happened before I was born.” Indeed. Had he been born in 1859, he’d now be dead. (These are the thoughts that pro journalists are paid to think.)

The BBC News Magazine also offers up an article on sturdy household objects that were made long before “planned obsolescence” was a familiar term. But really, the focus of the piece is Joan Archer, a 66-year-old from Pembrokeshire who has bravely used the the same Kenwood Chef food mixer since 1964. Long live print media.