marieyall:

thecamcorder:

marieyall:

Continuing on in the vein of ‘things I hate,’ I hate the Kindle (and similar devices). I love books (please see: my room), I have a really sentimental story about why but that’s for another time, and the Kindle is just another machine substituting for reality.

I hate the thought of a Kindle replacing someone’s book collection. Is it worth it to have a Kindle instead of bookshelves?If you want to read a book and you can’t make room for it in your bag or suitcase then you don’t really want to read a book. Most books are designed to be portable. Do you really need the extra space for more Urban Outfitters wall decorations or something? Why is there this movement to ‘unclutter’ our lives by purchasing these expensive and fragile gadgets that replace other things? Why do people think they need these things?

I’m grumbly about all of it and resistant to a lot of new technology. I’m from the country and in a lot of ways I am very old-fashioned. But while I’m typing this I’m facing a good portion of the books I own and I can’t imagine them not being a part of my life.

I’m usually the first person to jump on the AWESOME NEW TECHNOLOGY train. I’m a sucker for that kind of stuff. That said, I am 100% with you on the Kindle. I just love having books around. They have so much character. You can’t get that from a machine.

Besides, they really are portable. Most people aren’t dragging around five copies of War and Peace, so I don’t see why it’s such an issue to take a book with you.

ALSO: A number of years ago, when everyone was really jumping on the download/digital train for the first time, someone pointed out that we aren’t leaving a trace of our society. All the books and art and photos and other artifacts from past civilizations exist and tell us about what life was like during that time period because they were tangible. What will people think of us when all they can find are pieces of metal and plastic that don’t function?

PS: Forgive my BROAD stroke generalizations. It’s not a water-tight hypothesis by any means. Just a thought/fear.

There are so, so many things that bother me about it. I hate this age of convenience we’re ushering ourselves into. You don’t have to turn the page! Or go to the bookstore! or the library! Or, like, Netflix or digital downloads of movies — you don’t have to drive to the video rental store! Or, like iTunes — no going to the record store! So many things are telling us that flipping through things and walking through aisles at the store are these huge hassles and we need to spend hundreds of dollars on tiny machines that will eliminate the need for such time-wasting activities. It’s so ridiculous.

I really hate how temporary everything is, too. The vast majority of the books I own are much older than my laptop, desktop, cell phone, iPod, et cetera, and they will definitely outlive all of those things. It’s strange to me to invest so much — not just money — into machines that are only relevant for a few years.

I was arguing a little bit ago with a friend who is understandably enamored with the iPhone.  He thought that kids should be taught in school and tested on how to find information “in the cloud” using iPhone-type devices, as opposed to actually learning the information.  This way, every person becomes a high-functioning user of and contributor to humanity’s great internet connection experience, and that network will be there for people to call on instantly whenever they need it and it will improve everyone’s lives.

In some ways, his argument is understandable and it comes straight out of the modern push toward digital singularity and so-called “convenience,” and I almost felt like the crazy one for pointing out the fact that all those devices are so temporary.  The internet—“the cloud”—itself is temporary.  We can’t rely on it for everything.  It’s a useful tool, but it can’t be the only tool.  It could all just disappear in an instant.

It’s nice that we all have such faith that our way of life will continue on, but I don’t want us to become like the people that build their town at the bottom of a dam and then act surprised when it bursts and destroys everything they built.  Much that we have progressed to in the last fifty to one hundred years is so fragile and reliant on some very tenuous things like, for example, consistent oil and water supplies, relative peace and political stability (which we get at the expense of other countries’ peace and stability), and an agreeable climate.  I’m grateful that things are like this right now, but I try to keep awareness that all that can change so quickly…that’s just the reality.

Yet somehow I just sounded like a wacko luddite conspiracy-theorizing survivalist in that conversation.