I wholeheartedly understand the longing for analog. Since 2020, I've begun adopting more analog things back into my life, starting with writing my books longhand, with a fountain pen. (though I've since switched back to a Kindle Scribe that my husband bought me for Christmas...partially.) Started reading more books again.
I grew up watching my dad play videogames, first simple point-and-click adventures like Myst, later things like Thief. I still love watching people play videogames online, and playing them myself... that part of the digital world, I don't want to go away.
But social media? The 'influencer' lifestyle? Watching most people run around with their phones shoved in their faces, fighting that same urge in my brain and my kids' brains? Yeah. Can't wait for society as a whole to ditch that.
Great article. I really long for the analog world and do what I can to get back to it. I'm Gen X too, and I think for those of us who grew up before the world went digital, and who can still remember what things were like before social media, it is particularly attractive. We've seen both sides—the promise and the peril. Forced to choose, my answer would be easy. I live on a farm, and a big part of me wishes I could opt out and grow my own food, ditch the smart phone, and disappear from the internet. Will it ever happen? Probably not while I still need a paycheck, but maybe someday. I can dream, can't I?
I grew up in Silicon Valley. Both my dad and his brother were engineers (hardware not software). I remember going shopping with them for a new computer. We were going to get an IBM clone and my dad and uncle were arguing over whether it was worth getting the one with 5,000 KB of RAM (5,000 KB!) I still remember my uncle scoffing, "When would you ever need that much RAM? 2,000 is plenty!"
We got the machine with 5,000 KB and before long it was way to small for all the cool stuff coming out.
I love your speculative short stories, but I'm also glad you still do these Liminal Space essays.
Great article, Brian. And thoughtful too. Just like you, I’ve spent a lot of time wondering about the world we and the generation before us have created. I love tech and still get excited by it, but I also question whether it’s been a generally positive thing for humanity when you look at things like what social media does to kids or for that matter how Fortnite and online games have destroyed outside play. I mean can you even imagine what it must be like to be a teen and not spend hours at the mall just walking around with friends, browsing through B. Dalton or Walden Books, and goofing off? Seems incomprehensible to me.
I wholeheartedly understand the longing for analog. Since 2020, I've begun adopting more analog things back into my life, starting with writing my books longhand, with a fountain pen. (though I've since switched back to a Kindle Scribe that my husband bought me for Christmas...partially.) Started reading more books again.
I grew up watching my dad play videogames, first simple point-and-click adventures like Myst, later things like Thief. I still love watching people play videogames online, and playing them myself... that part of the digital world, I don't want to go away.
But social media? The 'influencer' lifestyle? Watching most people run around with their phones shoved in their faces, fighting that same urge in my brain and my kids' brains? Yeah. Can't wait for society as a whole to ditch that.
Great article. I really long for the analog world and do what I can to get back to it. I'm Gen X too, and I think for those of us who grew up before the world went digital, and who can still remember what things were like before social media, it is particularly attractive. We've seen both sides—the promise and the peril. Forced to choose, my answer would be easy. I live on a farm, and a big part of me wishes I could opt out and grow my own food, ditch the smart phone, and disappear from the internet. Will it ever happen? Probably not while I still need a paycheck, but maybe someday. I can dream, can't I?
I grew up in Silicon Valley. Both my dad and his brother were engineers (hardware not software). I remember going shopping with them for a new computer. We were going to get an IBM clone and my dad and uncle were arguing over whether it was worth getting the one with 5,000 KB of RAM (5,000 KB!) I still remember my uncle scoffing, "When would you ever need that much RAM? 2,000 is plenty!"
We got the machine with 5,000 KB and before long it was way to small for all the cool stuff coming out.
I love your speculative short stories, but I'm also glad you still do these Liminal Space essays.
Great article, Brian. And thoughtful too. Just like you, I’ve spent a lot of time wondering about the world we and the generation before us have created. I love tech and still get excited by it, but I also question whether it’s been a generally positive thing for humanity when you look at things like what social media does to kids or for that matter how Fortnite and online games have destroyed outside play. I mean can you even imagine what it must be like to be a teen and not spend hours at the mall just walking around with friends, browsing through B. Dalton or Walden Books, and goofing off? Seems incomprehensible to me.