Afraid of the iPod effect...

Since the advent of the iPod, I have dubbed the following phenomenon "The iPod Effect." It has two parts:
1. The inability to listen to any song in its entirety. - I once sat for a 40min car ride and did not ONCE hear a song for longer than 30 seconds each.  It's a musical adhd, of sorts.  The days of listening to cds straight through are completely gone. The aforementioned car ride was torturous... there had to be at least ONE song on that big iPod that he liked, right?  But that's apparently not the point.
2. The total wasting of time that could be otherwise engaged. - Particularly with the creation of fun, time-sucking apps for the iPod/iPhone, time spent on trains/in lines/after dinner/walking on the street/before bed... have all been taken up by playing things like Angry Birds, Sally's Spa and Cut the Rope.  The books I used to read on the train are now collecting dust; there is no urgency to find The Metro paper to take up the commuting time; no reflection on the day's tasks or zen meditation... heck! I wouldn't need to have any sort of human contact if there wasn't at least one person who loses their balance on the train. 


I recently received my FIRST EVER iPod (actually, it was my first ever Apple Product! Yeah I know.) for my birthday (thanks to the best friends ever!) and I was terrified that with my obsessive nature, I would immediately become all the things I resented (see above lists).  With the caveat that I've beaten all the free versions of Collapse, Angry Birds, ColorFill, etc... I am happy to claim that I think I've avoided at least SOME of the iPod Effect. 


Earlier this week I ran out to purchase a book that I'd been waiting for.  The iPod went completely untouched for 2 whole commutes as I tore through the book.  This book was a large hardcover book - not easy to tote around, and yet I still made it around with little inconvenience.  I'll admit I was depressed at the end of the book (I have to wait HOW LONG for the next one to come out?!?), but I was happy that I wasn't sure where my iPod was.  In times of better options, the mini-gaming console didn't control me.  I CAN use the commute to do other things, but I realized that it either has to be as effortless as playing Scramble 30 times, or something that I would give up a meal for.  Here's my conclusion: I think that if I can find another suitably exciting medium, I don't have to rely on my fun-yet-stupid apps to fill my time.  Maybe I can escape the iPod Effect relatively unscathed.