Writing in the Times Online (U.K.) last week, Andrew Sullivan explains how the "iPod people" are changing the look and feel of the city. The usual “insane mishmash of yells, chatter, clatter, hustle and chutzpah that makes New York the urban equivalent of methamphetamine" has been replaced by an eerie quiet as a growing number iPod users “walk down the street in their own MP3 cocoon, bumping into others, deaf to small social cues, shutting out anyone not in their bubble…"

It's no different underground, where iPod users exchange blank looks with one another: "Get on a subway and you’re surrounded by a bunch of Stepford commuters staring into mid-space as if anaesthetised by technology. Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t overhear, don’t observe. Just tune in and tune out.”