MP3 Player in 2024: The Zoomer Experience

(For those who aren't friends and see this entry in the blogs section, I am 16, and most people I know never had an MP3 player growing up :p)

I’ve been looking to fill up my blog as I despise how empty it looks, yet I find myself stuck every time I try writing about something (Not much to write about regarding my life, except maybe my dread for the ACT prep I willingly signed up for). So as I wait for Cobalt to finish downloading Rockstar by N.E.R.D, I come to an epiphany— why not write about my MP3 player?

This school year, my district began enforcing a “no-cellphone” policy, and I’m not necessarily against it, but after going my freshman year without listening to music, I realized I was not built for that lifestyle. So as the start of the school year closed in, I went dumpster diving (in my closet, messy enough to be called a dumpster) for something I knew could fix my issue.

An RCA 4GB MP3 player from 2011/2012 given to me by a family member… in 2015.

Her name’s Fang (after Oerba Yun Fang from Final Fantasy XIII) and she still works! Just not amazingly, as the shuffle and repeat modes stopped functioning— but it plays music, and that's all I care about. It runs on a singular AAA battery, so although I don’t have to worry about spicy pillows, it drains fast (and thus, I usually carry one with me at all times). So until I get some rechargeable batteries, I will be the number one victim of the Evil Evil Battery Companies™. It’s super small: it fits on most watch pockets and I don’t think the screen could even display Snake, so most of my teachers have been super chill about it and let me keep it :-)

As for the music, it reminds me of how small MP3 files are, at least if you don’t really care about quality. All of the music I keep on my computer, along with my CDs, would barely fill up a quarter of the 4GBs. As of now, it has around 3 hours of music, and it only takes up about 8% of the total space available. The majority of the music is Basement Jaxx and Madison Avenue, but genre-wise I’ve been feeling a lot of dance and generally just upbeat music. Compared to last year, when all of my school playlists were composed of Yeule and the Silent Hill 2 Soundtrack, I feel a lot happier going through the day.

So, total feelings on it? It works, it plays music, it won't get taken away, and that's all I need honestly. And despite its downfalls (batteries, modes, etc.), I'm willing to be inconvinienced.

Thx 4 Reading :-),

Nicholas ♡

(P.S. Everything on Fang is synced to this Spotify Playlist!)