Is analog more “memorable” than digital?

This post by CE Pro Magazine editor Julie Jacobson about the resurrection of vinyl records really made me think.

Is digital content even memorable?

Is there something about analog content that is more memorable? Perhaps it’s the physical presence, or an overall sense of nostalgia. Is that something that is doomed to disappear with the generations being born into this digital age? As we, who were brought up on record albums, books, and photographs age, and our kids have kids, what happens to nostalgia? Maybe it simply takes on a different form. Maybe digital photo albums take on a physical presence in the form of tablets, or the digital frames we have today.  Maybe music and books are destined to present themselves in new and exciting ways to mimic the sense of physicality we seem to enjoy.  Bookshelves are replaced by screens that mimic physical stacks of literature we have downloaded. Music collections are taking on that form today with interfaces like iTunes, and digital audio catalogs being displayed on our home televisions, and multimedia devices.

But will these innovations resurrect the memories the same way analog forms once did? We used to (some of us still do) create photo albums, or frame our favorite photos, collect records and albums, cassette tapes and 8-tracks, books, newspaper clippings, etc. and from time to time refer back to them resurrecting memories of where we were, what we were doing, how the specific collectible impacted our lives back then. For me, I remember purchasing my first record albums: Rush’s 2112 and Journey’s Escape. I can remember playing it over and over again in my bedroom on my Technics turntable.  I cannot for the life of me remember the first song or album I downloaded from the web, or how often I listened to it, or how it made me feel.  Around our house, we have framed pictures of our kids when they were born, vacations we took, and pets we had. We have photo albums filled with memories of the same events.  My kids even prefer to thumb through the old albums versus the “folders” of digital photos on the iMac.

Maybe future  generations of digital natives need to be reminded of such memories.  Maybe meta tagging music, books, movies we download, or photos and videos we shoot with time stamps would be a way to create memories.  What if you fired up your tablet, smartphone, or television (if it still exists) and it displayed a message…”10 years ago, you were…” Facebook is attempting this with Timeline. What if it became something that was embedded in every fabric of our digital life?

Would that make digital more memorable?

Related Posts:

What 240TB of music used to look like…
The incredible disappearing hard drive
Just for fun: long live the mix tape
Just for fun – killers of art or creators of artists?

2011-10-31T10:18:45+00:00

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