Are iPods Good for Teens?

You might be wondering about the latest craze: the iPod MP3 player by Apple! Everyone and their best friend has one, so why wouldn’t every single teenager also want to get their hands on this fancy piece of music playing technology? Well that’s all fine and dandy, but are iPods really a good gift idea for a teenager? Will teens misuse the new toy that they’ve received from their parents? What are the dangers of purchasing such an expensive gift for your teenager? Find out by reading the rest of this article!

First of all, you need to understand that teenagers will follow their own will no matter what you try to do. So the trick is to try to understand teenagers and find out how you can better relate to them by thinking like them and maybe even getting an iPod for yourself. These days listening to an MP3 player is extremely easy to do and you can find people listening to music, learning new languages through MP3 recordings, listening to Podcasts about their favorite television show or political views. Trust me, teenagers will be able to come up with thousands of reasons why they absolutely need an iPod. You can listen to music while you study, travel to and from school, when you exercise, as the music for your alarm clock, before you go to sleep to relax, and the list goes on.

But don’t let them intimate you. There are many reasons for you to think twice about buying an iPod. The first big issue the cost of the mp3 player. Of course the iPod can cost somewhere between $50 if you buy it used and range upwards of 200 dollars. The amount of storage space available gets less expensive as you get higher up in the price range. However, I believe that most teenagers would be happy with a limited amount of music storage space. But if you are catering to an especially technologically savvy teenager, then you might want to consider pitching in more to buy a higher end iPod model, since you will be making the life of the MP3 player longer and making your teenager very happy.

The next big issue is whether the addition of the mp3 player in your teenager’s life will alter their attitudes and their concentration in school. After watching many people who got an iPod recently, I noticed that many people stop talking to their friends or acquaintances when they are listening to their mp3 players and this seems to lower their level of socializing. This might also affect their studies, since they might be tempted to play games on their MP3 player or to listen to music while they study. Some researchers say that listening to music while you study helps you remember better, but it depends on the type of music they listen to of course.

So the next time you talk to your teenager and they mention the fact that everyone at school has an iPod, ask them if they really want one before they make statements like that. If they can come up with some good reasons to convince you to splurge on the gift, then by all means go for it. Just make sure you get a veto right to use the iPod whenever you want to relax with some nice music too.