This argument sounds like one that has already been made previously by your team. My Rebuttals can be found there too. But I will still argue back that it gives us a new awareness of what is around us, it creates a soundtrack to our everyday life and allows us to see our surroundings in a new light.

We are not looking at a screen, we are listening through ear plugs. The distraction could not be apparent if the real world is still being seen by the user. The space is still there, but the time has been beautifully by the music through the I-pod.

I pods aren't the disruption between external reality and piped in schizophonics, rather than a bridge between the two. The whole point of creating playlists is to allow the user to match the real world to their own music, and I-pods allow us to do just that. Through i-pods we are able to flow through the external world together with our own playlists we have constructed.

I doubt that true skate was on your I-pod, rather your phone. In a previous argument I made, I did claim that the phone is a disruptive piece of technology, but this is a different point compared to the I-pod. Here it is the phone that is disruptive and not the I-pod.

With the invention of the I-Pod shuffle, the use of the screen becomes unnecessary, allowing users to fully concentrate on the world around them. Even with I-pods that did feature a screen, thanks to playlists, the music playing are all what the listener has selected. With this comes personal preference and predictability of music playing and reduces the amount the screen is seen drastically. Again, allowing the user to concentrate on their environment.

Disruptive technology would refer to kinds of technology that would stand in the way or even prevent people from taking on their activities in their daily lives. Technology such as phones and computers are considered in this category. I-pods are able to smooth us through these daily activities rather than prevent us from doing them. They help our work flow if anything. I pods are not a disruptive technology.