I am not generally a possessions kind of person.

But yesterday evening, as I walked in the rain down the beautiful lamp-lit and glistening street of Palmerston while listening to “The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead,” by Final Fantasy, I realized that my MP3/radio player has actually fundamentally changed my life for the better.

In the mornings I walk to work listening to CBC Metro Morning. I tune into the BBC World News on the Jazz FM station.

No matter what mood I am in when I walk home, I can add music and enhance that feeling. It is like MSG for the soul.

I have read a few articles lately that talk about the anti-social effects caused by widespread use of MP3 players. People using MP3 just “cut themselves off” from the world – so They say.

But I have two things to say to these people.

First, as someone who has now lived in downtown Toronto for five years, I can say that Torontonians often go to great lengths not to engage one another on the street. Rather than risk direct interaction we lower our eyes, turn our backs, examine at the peeling paint on the elevator door, and hum non-melodiously to ourselves. In this sense, the MP3 player is just the logical extension of our urban loneliness. Fine, if we are going to walk around in our bubbles, we may as well fill our little spaces so that we are surrounded by music that moves us.

Second, I am not so sure that MP3 players don’t actually have the reverse effect from that alleged. That is, they may actually bring us closer together. In my short time of MP3 player ownership, I have swapped and traded music with people and learned of more new bands in the past year than I have in the past five. Increased awareness of music means more potential points of commonality between people.

But on a less practical level, I have sometimes found myself emboldened by the music I listen to. While listening to a particularly upbeat song, I have caught myself smiling at people around me. Music is acknowledged to have the potential to stir deep visceral reactions in people. Maybe it is the case that our MP3 players sometimes actually help us to achieve a heightened sensitivity to others around us.

And even if this is just a cockamamie theory – who cares? MP3 listening is pure bliss and if you don't like it, mind yo' business and leave me alone.