Like it or not, we're living in the age of the iPod. Apple has sold over 40 million units of this newfangled gadgetry (14 million in the last quarter of 2005 alone) and there's no end in sight. Let the backlash begin!

Apparently, there are some risks that come with iPod ownership (other than going broke, that is). First off, you could be walking down the street rocking out to the latest Nickelback single, which would make you easy prey for a mugger. Of course, you'd deserve to get your ass kicked for listening to Nickelback, but, on the upside, the mugger would be much less likely to steal your iPod if you were.

Another bit of alarmism for the iPod generation is actually just a dusted-off scare tactic from the golden age of the Sony Walkman: deafness. According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, iPods and other such devices are capable of causing permanent damage to the hearing of our nation's hip, young, rich iPod owners. Pity.

Digital technology has made it possible to play music in these devices at loud volumes without the signal distortion produced by, say, a transistor radio. And Apple touts its newest iPods as being capable of holding up to 15,000 songs and being able to play for up to 20 hours on a fully charged battery. Therein lies potential for trouble.

If you listen to the Cassandras, it gets a whole lot worse than that. At stake is not merely our aural health, but our very culture as well. Again, this is not new. Back in 1987, Allan Bloom had this to say in The Closing of the American Mind: "As long as [young people] have the Walkman on, they cannot hear what the great tradition has to say. And, after its prolonged use, when they take it off, they find they are deaf." The deafness of which Bloom writes is, for the most part, a metaphysical affliction. Now some researchers from Britain are predicting a similar calamity for the iPod People.

The accessibility of music has meant that it is taken for granted and does not require a deep emotional commitment once associated with music appreciation.

That according to "music psychologist" Adrian North of the University of Leicester, who probably really, really loved Mott the Hoople and the kids today, they just don't have the passion, man. Among the researchers' other findings: