Analog People

It's very noisy in my head today.

Yesterday, while on the phone with my mother, I described myself as an "analog person". We were having a discussion about bulletin boards in relation to apartment hunting, and I made the observation that bulletin boards are less frequently used these days than online message boards. By online message board, I mean anything from Craigslist to the more recently discovered Lemmingtrail.com, insipid, hipster-trolling wasteland though it may be.

My mother stopped me, questioning, Analog person? You'd describe yourself that way? I hesitated a moment, stalling. Well, yes, in the sense that I find the thought of an actual bulletin board comforting; made of real cork and covered in flyers and posters and business cards. When it comes right down to it, when I need to write a note, I'm always going to reach for the pen and paper before I reach for the smartphone.

Now, though, reflecting a little, I'm not sure that's entirely true. The part about the smartphone, yes, but I'm more likely to use Craigslist than a flyer on a telephone pole. I certainly use email several orders of magnitude more frequently than the postal system, and there are certain people I am much more likely to converse with over Facebook than on the telephone. Even by making this blog, I am admitting that I'm more likely to write something if I'm posting it to the internet than if I'm writing in a leather-bound journal. Which brings up all sorts of interesting questions about introspection and the public forum, but the more relevant question here, is, if I am an "analog person", wouldn't I prefer paper to a key board?

I'm rethinking my answer, considering very carefully. I am not, to my own mind, tech-savvy enough to consider myself a "digital person". On the other hand, I have an email address, a Facebook account, an aim screen name from middle school, a Skype account, a defunct LiveJournal account I created under duress and never used, hell, I even have a blog that I've resolved to use daily. It would seem disingenuous, and more than slightly naive, to not describe myself as digital.

This dichotomy, "analog people" and "digital people"; well it actually seems a little contrived. Fifteen years ago, not so much. Ten even. Relevant for many born before 1950, belonging to certain religions, or raised in a far-flung or impoverished corner of the world, by American standards at least. In a similar vein of sweeping generalizations, if you live in what has been termed the first world, and frankly even if you don't, the odds of not encountering digital technology in your lifetime have dwindled to practically nothing. The odds of using digital technology have increased manifold, and the odds of it becoming an every day convenience or necessity are probably approaching 2:1.

I'm getting away from myself. I'm not posing a general question, I'm posing a specific one, a personal one, and I'm looking for a personal answer.

I look at the calendar on my wall more than the one on my phone. E-readers, though useful and compact, seem a poor replacement for paperbacks. I planned half my senior project on a dry-erase board and butcher paper. I have a vinyl pressing of Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life, none of which is in my iTunes. And I think no matter how technologically inclined I become, most of these things will remain true. No matter how cool or convenient digital media becomes, some things are more satisfying when they're not on a screen.

I suppose the truth is I'm a hybrid person, inclined to use a combination of what's easiest, what's nearest at hand, and what's most personally rewarding. And I think the same can be said for most people.

Thought of the Day:

I do not fancy myself a philosopher.

Isha