Digital drawback?
I've been feeling a bit strung out lately by the digital world. As is obvious to anyone who knows me, I'm a geek: I love gadgets and the Web and computers and all that stuff. But more and more, I feel its making me a very material person, one caught up in craving and desiring and wanting. Following the up-to-the-minute news on the latest Mac or iPod makes me feel like I have to have one, which then makes me feel like I'm not making enough money if I can't afford one, which then makes me re-think my career choices and my priorities and . . . ugh! Enough! That is no way to live.
So I've made the decision to try to cut back on some of my digital consumption. I've pruned the list of blogs I subscribe to in Google Reader and I've drastically cut down on my podcast subscriptions: as much as it pains me, I've decided to not follow tech and Apple and all that as closely as I have been. I love my iPod, I love my Mac, but they're just tools for accessing what I really love: music, creativity, sports, photography, friends, etc. It's funny, I love the tools so much that I tend to forget what jobs the tools are meant to perform!
Speaking of cutting back on the one's and zero's, yesterday Jill and I helped our friends Matt and Lauren move into their new Clinton Hill apartment. They're really big into vinyl and, though lugging those records up three flights was no fun, it was yet another reminder to me of all the non-digital ways to access the things you love. As hackneyed as it may sound, there really is something different about listening to a record: slipping the beautiful black disk out of the sleeve, holding the huge and beautiful artwork in your hands, dropping the heavy needle on that spinning platter . . . there's something physical and organic about it, something way better than the mp3 experience. True, you can't make smart playlists or listen to your whole collection on shuffle or take it with you in your pocket -- but in a way, that's nice. It forces you to slow down, to appreciate an album as an album, to sit and listen to just one artist, to enter just one mood. Look, I'm not trading in my iPod for anything, but seeing Matt and Lauren's record collection inspired me to dig out my turntable, pull out my records, and rekindle the love affair with the LP. And who knows, the next album I buy might actually be an album, not a digital mp3 download! (But then, of course, there's the environmental impact of plastic vs. bits . . . oh goodness, things are so complicated! I'll have to take that up another time.)
To finish off, here's a nice pic of Matt from moving day, taken with my sweet new Canon Rebel:
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By they way, I really dig your photos -- good luck with your new year's resolution to get more serious about it. I'll be watching on Flickr!