From the Sloop and Gunn article:
The use of any means of communication materially alters the body (and its movement) and strongly encourages a change in the way we understand our world and our identities through the expansion of the body in space and time.
Note this Gothamist.com post on a topic we spent at least twenty minutes talking about in the class the other day. Note both the picture (which I mentioned in class), and the figure for average speed at which someone wearing headphones walks. I think that qualifies as having the way we move our bodies materially altered. It should also be of interest that headphones are generally banned during competitive running events, although mainly only for elite runners and with enforcement being at the race directors’ discretion. For any of you who work out or run, or even if you just listen to your iPod while walking down the street, do you feel a change in your stride when you listen to music? Do you sometimes notice this change only after you’ve already been doing it? This non-conscious change is what Sloop and Gunn mean to imply when they are using Marshall McLuhan’s concept of technology being “prosthetic.” It is an extension of our bodies, one that sometimes we neglect to really notice.
I think that reading this was pretty interesting. One of my friend’s always has his headphones on at work. He walks really fast to a point where if I’m walking with him I kind of have to jog a bit to catch up to him. That’s usually when he realizes that he is walking too fast and slows down to my pace. Without his headphones on, he’s a “normal speed” walker. When we’re at work, he’s always a walking fast with his headphones on but if we’re hanging out outside of work even with his headphones on he walks with a normal speed.
I guess in a way the setting a person is in either a more pressured situation (at work) compared with a more relaxed situation may also effect the ways our bodies non-consciously alter in different states. I know that when I’m in the city coming to Baruch I feel the need to walk super fast, I guess with everything that’s going on around me I feel a bit of a rush compared to when I’m in my neighborhood where I take my time and walk a bit more peacefully.
There is no doubt that there’s a significant correlation between walking speed and music. From personal experience especially during a workout, the faster the music is, the faster and more intense my workout is. When I’m shopping on the other hand, I like to put on more chill music, so that the pace changes. I see people constantly speeding through sidewalk traffic, zooming left and right while their headphones are in. I’m pretty sure that the music they listen to at that time is not Kenny G. Many people get strongly effected by music. Music can alter the way you think, feel, react and behave. For an athlete to listen to music while training is one thing, but during an actual competitive sport should be prohibited, otherwise its simply cheating. For exercise savvy individuals, you will enjoy this article… http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/sundquist.html