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I miss scarcity

This is not a complaint. Or, if it is a complaint, it's half-aimed at me. Mostly this is a reflection.

In the old days, I got to know music really well -- in great detail, sonically, musically, reading all the credits, the liner notes, etc. A friend would have an album I didn't, so I'd go to his house to listen. We'd talk about the music. We'd talk about how album sides hung together or didn't. We were thrilled by double albums.

Now, a torrent of information is everywhere. I listen alone, often to a single song, often not listening to anything over and over again.

You will tell me, "That's your choice." I'd half agree. It's like agreeing that "It's my choice not to live off the electrical grid." 

As I read and teach about AI, I am learning that our tools often prioritize speed and information glut. It seems, initially, like a cornucopia but it becomes a wash of "content." I must admit, I'm losing my talent for managing all this content, and I'm losing my love for it. And it's making me into a different person, somewhat, and I am not so sure I want to be that person. End of reflection.

Wizard Conjuring Cosmic Chaos Art Print featuring the drawing Let There be Content by Benjamin Schwartz

hilde45
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hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
6,000 posts
 

@soix 

I think there might be a bit of nostalgia/rose-colored glasses involved here.  I for one could never imagine going back to just listening to the CDs I own. 

That's why I said "not trying to weigh it all out." The line you quoted.

The challenge of questioning technology is not to try to put issues into an "either/or" framing but to see what is gained and lost, specifically. The gains of exploring new music and easy access to entire catalogs is, well, pretty obvious by now. This is the easier thing to talk about. This is a post about thinking about what is also lost.

soix
11,233 posts
 

The challenge of questioning technology is not to try to put issues into an "either/or" framing but to see what is gained and lost, specifically. The gains of exploring new music and easy access to entire catalogs is, well, pretty obvious by now. This is the easier thing to talk about. This is a post about thinking about what is also lost.

Yeah I get it, but you still have to consider both sides and not just what we’ve lost.  Would you give up what you have today to get back the things you’ve lost?  If the answer is no then you’ve gained more than you’ve lost, and even though we can certainly lament some of the things we’ve lost along the way we’re still overall better off than before.  It is sad on some ways, but that’s progress — it rarely if ever comes free.  But I too struggle with the sheer amount of info coming at us from all different directions in many different forms and being able to even keep up with it all much less appreciate things on a deeper and more appreciative level.  In that way I feel sorry for my kids that they’ve grown up on their devices just “keeping up” and not sure they’ve learned how to appreciate and savor taking time to enjoy things to the deeper levels as we did growing up.  I try to hope that maybe it’s not better or worse and maybe just a different type of enjoyment and fulfillment and that maybe I’m just old and don’t get it, but I have my doubts.  Anyway, here we are. 

jl35
4,452 posts
 

I love streaming, especially this time of year with all the Best Of lists coming out...still do lots of CD and some LP ... but something has absolutely been lost...can't compare or measure or rate...

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
7,879 posts
 

Hey @parkergetdean take your politics elsewhere buddy. 

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