Tech Blog

[#1]

Once upon a time, not too long ago, in the latter part of the last century - say the 60’s and 70’s, consuming media was clumsy and cumbersome. It seemed that you had to make a special appointment with your hardware to listen to the latest band or show some friends your latest photos. You had one device for each media, and sharing and consuming media was not something you did every day, on a whim, or easily. You had to have a special place to consume your media. And you had to set aside special time for it.

Radio was ‘the’ medium that gave you instant gratification back in the day. Everyone had one, or two, and had a favourite station or music program. The catch was, a station could only broadcast one thing at a time. So if you weren’t into old-time polka music, you had to find another station to listen to, from a handful, perhaps. We all had favourite stations and programs.

Portable music was your little transistor radio. AM. The Sony Walkman wouldn’t be developed for a few years yet. Apple was a record label that the Beatles recorded with. The computer company didn’t exist yet either. There really wasn’t a concept of a personal music player.

In most homes, the ‘living room’ had all the majority of media devices; a hi-fi (record player), a TV, and that was it. Perhaps the hi-fi had an 8-track player or cassette . Home movies and photos were presented theatre-style - projected on a big screen (after reconfiguring the room and setting up said projector and screen). Eventually consumer-grade videotape systems were introduced, but still the problem of scheduling your media consumption existed.

Many of you likely remember such things, maybe even you’ve used them or owned them, but I’m guessing that a fair number of readers here wouldn’t know how to change the stylus in a turntable, nor the difference between Chromium Dioxide and Ferric Oxide audio tape. Such were (competitor) of technology, back in the day.

Fast-forwarding to today you easily see the how lifestyle technology has changed the way we share and consume media:

• Movies on demand can be ordered instantly and delivered to any room in the house with today’s high bandwidth HD PVRs and routers
• Photos are rarely stored in physical books. Rather they’re on computer hard drives, or better yet, on commercial photo sharing services (like flickr and Picassa) where they’re easily available, secure and regularly backed up.
• The same for music, though today you really don’t need to store it. Rather than playback from a physical media device (LP, 45, CD etc) you can simply grab your computer and surf to one of the many online music stores. Or if you simply want to sample, it’s easy to use one of the streaming services like GrooveShark or Blip.fm.

Once some big-brained hackers somewhere realized that our media can be converted into bits and bytes, things changed. Those bits and bytes can be stored, moved, shared, delivered over this series of tubes called the Internet. That music, movie, whatever is now portable, and it doesn’t really care about format. I can play an mp3 on my computer, network-enabled blu-ray player, iPod, iPad, eBook reader, Phone, etc... you get the picture.

So now, we’re much more efficient at consuming and sharing our media when and where we want. There are many inexpensive technology tools that enable this, but are we better off?

Some days, I miss the excitement of bringing home a new album of music, putting it on the turntable and sharing the music with anyone in the house. That used to be something special. There was a little ritual associated with opening the album, cleaning the disc, and dropping the needle in the groove.

Somehow, opening a CD and sliding it into a player, or pressing ‘buy’ on an online music store just doesn’t have that same special sense of ritual, that sense that ‘we’re going to listen to music now, this is important, so sit down and pay attention’. Some days, consuming media just doesn’t seem as special as it once was.

I wonder what’s replaced it....I’ve not found it yet.

[#2]

I wonder what this has all replaced too... now that people are on their blackberries/iphones/smartphones all the time, it doesn't mean that it's saving them time by not requiring a computer in front of them, it just means they're more accessible.

When you're more accessible, people (and companies) keep trying to get a hold of you, relentlessly. This just leads to more confusion and useless time-consumption. I digress, but this is all a result of evolving technology and taking us further away from the roots of it all... like the never having to mention that "nothing sounds like vinyl". Everybody would just know...

[#3]

@esman7: excellent point. Perhaps it's just that there's too much competing for time and attention these days. Maybe we need a 'slow-tech' movement. Take the time to enjoy what we've got, not spend time looking forward to the 'next big thing'.

[#4]

@bgrier: in the words of Ferris Bueller "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

You're totally right. People are too caught up with where we're they're going, not where they are.

[#5]

@esman7: just saw this and it seems appropriate - Cult of less: Living out of a hard drive - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10928032

I think these guys are finding time

Cult of less: Living out of a hard drive

[#6]

Haha "the Cult of Less" - genius.

If only food and shelter could be digitized, then their "Second Life" accounts wouldn't be so secondary.

[#7]

I really enjoyed this post, Brad. Thank you for making me think about this. Even CDs used to be special in college: as a poor student, buying a new album was a big treat, and for those attending UGA in Athens, GA in its musical heyday, a special connection to being current with the scene.

I suspect that we're also missing the loss of the album. How many people today purchase albums as opposed to the specific tracks they like?

These days, I look forward to True Blood night, aka Sunday. That's one of the few times that my husband and I are simultaneously consuming the same media, and I wish that we did it more often.

[#8]

Hey Katharine, thanks for your thoughts! There was something to be said for the scarcity of content back in the day. I remember looking through record store bins for a copy of an album that may be a year or two old. If they didn't have it, you went to the next store, etc. Stuff that was hard to get had greater value, and I appreciated it more when I did get it. Now, much easier, push a button. But I'm not sure I appreciate it as much.