Ok, one feels to need to explain one’s self!
I do (honestly!) know and believe that all of the forms of technology that I currently eschew are in fact a boon to many. I don’t question that, nor would I ever take them away from anyone (except at the dinner table) — I, in fact, think it’s kind of ridiculous that I feel smug! What’s to feel smug about? It’s just tools, and they as good or as annoying as the people using them.
I have an actual dislike for the iPhone as a product, and I greatly prefer old-fashioned photography to digital. Other than that, these are all just things that I don’t know how to do, that some other people really enjoy.
There. Fixt!
Sorry….
Emily L. Hauser - In My Head 
Bryn
/ August 9, 2009Awww, you’re cool! You probably just didn’t realize that your readers were such sensitive delicate flowers 🙂 Heehee.
Ninerdave
/ August 10, 2009Totally understood. I own a recording studio, and while I make great use of all sorts of digital technologies, I start by laying down the music on my good old analog 24 track. Digital allows me to do a lot, including for better or worse, making a mediocre band sound fantastic. However, there is a certain something that the analog gives to the sound that is so organic (vs a pure digital recording), and at the end of the day, makes it much easier to mix. 🙂 Not to say that there aren’t quality mixes coming solely from the digital realm.
More to the point of photography, I once, a few years back read an interview with a photographer who was experimenting with digital and noticed that it was way to easy to “throw a picture away”. The premise was that while initially a picture might not strike you, some of the great pictures were discovered after a “soak time”. Digital pictures are instant, film requires effort and thus it’s not so easy to discard something that initially didn’t seem worthy.
Bringing it full circle to music, I know this phenomenon as initially hating a record, then after five, ten or more listen, finally get it. When you buy a CD you invest in the music, when you download a song, you have no stake in it, and it’s a split second decision. Like it? Hate it. Then again, the music industry has foisted upon us, a bunch of generic crap for the last ten or so years. It’s not about the music, it’s about who they can doll up to sell on MTV. The music is secondary if not tertiary.
emilyanne
/ August 10, 2009Ha I’m sorry I missed the earlier post.
The thing is if people want to do these things then I completely support them but I personally loathe them and I think i’m allowed to. I actually don’t think it’s smugness in my case – i’m sort of paranoid, I really don’t want people to track me down via the net and i’m married to a man who researches people for a living and who has thus repeatedly proved to me how very easy it is to find out personal stuff about people via social networking sites without them having given you permission to go on said sites. As a journalist I can also verify how easy it is to use facebook or twitter to find out information about people for a story, and well, to be honest it makes me very uncomfortable.
As to the Iphone – i own an apple mac and I don’t like the iphone, i get it looks good and is pretty swish but I have to hold my hands up and admit that as a very anti-social person I like my phone to simply be a phone and nothing else. I don’t want to take pictures with it, hell I barely reply to emails most of the time. I should just admit that at heart I’m misanthropic and thus new technology scares me – i don’t want the world to grow smaller and to be able to connect with more people. I like not being able to be tracked down.
Michael Unger
/ August 10, 2009I totally understand analog recording vs digital. There is a warmth to analog recording that has not yet been obtained with digital recording (but I’m betting it will be soon).
I totally understand not wanting to be so “connected to the world”. This does not demonize technology though; this merely means you don’t want to use it like people have traditionally done.
Digital Photography is such a different beast from using good old silver-based film (and all the things you could do during the developing process), that these two technologies do not supplant each other. Rather, I think they augment each other. If you are merely doing simple snapshots or portraits, there is really no reason to use film. You aren’t taking advantage of the things you can do with it, and you are spending money for nothing. If you are messing around with push-processing or other developing tricks, then film is a whole different world than Adobe Photoshop Effects.
I’ve got no problem with people not using technology. I certainly don’t think it means those people are better in some way. Nor is being a technophobe make you inferior in some way (unless you really really WANT to use the technology and your fear stops you. In this case, get some therapy LOL)
I love how blogs create conversations which were unintended to the original writer!