What's on your iPod?

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, but I think in this day and age, it's the iPod.

You can learn quite a bit about someone just by finding out what's on their iPod. You can find out what music they like to listen to, what books they like to read, what TV shows they like to watch. You can browse the person's favorite photos and you can read a person's contact list.

The answer to the question, "What's on your iPod?" can give us a window into another person's personality. We can get a glimpse inside their head. I'm not the first person to ask that question. Politicians from both sides of the aisle have answered it from prying reporters. Celebrities have shared their answers. It's almost as good of a line as "What's your sign?"

Before today, I often thought of publishing a post that would share what's on my iPod and inviting bloggers to share what's on theirs. Of course, the advantage was I got to decide what to share and what to keep to myself. It's a different feeling when you don't get to do that important self editing.

Today as I was on my way back to the office after having lunch with a couple of co-workers, one of them asked me if he could take a look at my iPod. I willingly handed it over because I thought I'm pretty much an open book. If somebody is curious about me, I'm happy to share. Usually, I'm just thrilled with the fact that someone wants to know more about me.

It didn't occur to me that my co-worker might change his opinion of me after browsing my iPod or that he might possibly make judgments based on what he found there.

I even made a joke that he was about to discover my poor taste in music and if he ever had any interest in me before, looking at what was on my iPod surely killed it.

But as I thought more about it sitting back at my desk, I started feeling exposed. It was almost as if this co-worker had seen me naked or do something quite embarrassing. I was feeling a bit like I was back in high school and had just realized because of what I had just revealed about myself, I was going to be relentlessly teased and ridiculed.

I kept thinking about one of my friends in high school who always turned the latest book she was reading face down whenever she brought it to class. She didn't think it was anybody's business what she was reading and she didn't want the questions or the judgments that would go along with it. But someone would always turn the book over. Sometimes that person was me. I used to wonder if more people were interested in finding out what the book was just because it was being concealed than they would have been if she had left it face up. But now I realized why she did it. Letting someone look through my iPod was exactly like turning the book over.

So, just what did my co-worker find when he turned the book over, or rather, scrolled through the device using the click wheel? I'll add that to this post next time.

In the meantime, feel free to post what's on your iPod/mp3 player/CD player. Share what you want and hide what you want! Luckily, the choice is yours!