Introduction

There is no doubt that the age of computers has revolutionised how each one us lives our lives. It has overwhelmingly been a positive force in a whole range of industries, such as communications, health care and many more.

However, there is slowly growing backlash to the influence computers now have on our lives. Most of us spend a huge amount of time staring into a computer screen and I, for one, am increasingly worried about the negative effect that the digital revolution is having on our lives. I’ve decided to write up a few pieces I’ve been thinking about, in part to try and focus on what really bothers me and whether or not I can fix it and also t0 see if others feel the same.

Part One – Humans as collectors

One of the peculiar side effects of the digital revolution is the shift from physical objects to digital copies. On the surface this is a harmless, barely noteworthy shift, as formats are continuously changing, being replaced by the new, better, faster version… however this IS noteworthy and it is NOT the same.

Humans are collectors, it makes us happy but physical collections are disappearing.

This change means that people no longer have many of the things that, have for generations, been the greatest source of pride and joy in their lives. Record collections, film libraries, photo albums, shelves of books can all be replaced by their digital alternatives… but to what end?

Of course there are benefits to digital copies, allowing vast online music libraries or storing thousands of photos on your camera, but how much of that music do you listen to and when was the last time you looked at your photos?

If we take music libraries as an example, there is little surprise that vinyl records are making a comeback. Looking at a chart of vinyl record sales from 1973 to 2015 (http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2015/01/20/vinyl-comeback-really-looks-like/) it is clear there is an increasing demand for the format, with sales growing across every one of the last 10 years. 2016 is likely to be even bigger with a huge number of popular artists choosing to release their music in this format, see top selling vinyl albums this year.

This increased demand is not simply driven by nostalgia but also by the pleasure of simply owning records, the pleasure of the process of putting a record on the turntable and lowering the needle.

Not to get too hung up on vinyl, there has also been a strong resurgence with cassette tapes. If we paraphrase from an article by Jason Evangelho: for one of the largest and busiest cassette manufacturers in the US, in 2015 their duplicated cassette sales increased 31% over 2014 and so far in 2016 they are well ahead again. It would seem the same process is going on here, people are remembering the joys of collecting.

It’s now worth a mention of the format that was too late to the digital party – ebooks. 2016 sales are down 25% on 2015, which itself was down 11% on 2014. This is the format that has never really managed to make significant inroads on it’s pre-digital cousin. I have never successfully managed to get through an ebook and suspect I never will. There is something that is lost in translation in e-readers, the comfort of the physical book and the satisfaction in turning the pages… the essence of what a book is (not to mention the comfort of being surrounded by book shelves).

I could not find sales figures for film cameras but I strongly believe there will be a resurgence here too, alongside many other things that have been challenged by “the cloud”.

Of course the things I’ve discussed here will not bother some people but I know it will ring true with others. The loss of “things” may seem inconsequential but it is just one aspect of a path that we are currently following that will have a negative effect on our quality of life. In part two I’m going to explore some of the more serious effects, including social media related depression, ever worsening eye problems and the amount of time we spend outdoors.

I am confident the trend towards collecting will continue… too many people will simply be missing out if doesn’t.