Am I analog, Or digital?

I recently had a series of experiences which made me think of this post.

A few weeks ago my daughter was asking, “what is your earliest memory?” Then a few nights ago while I was listening to the radio the host said that he came from an analog generation and kids today are raised in a digital generation.
The two concepts merged in my mind and I thought about it musically. One of my memories from my childhood was of me getting up VERY early in the morning and going to the living room and listening to a record on my portable little turntable in the corner of the living room. (I liked a “story” record titled the ballad of Hector the stowaway dog.)
And then I thought about the way we have listened to music over the course of my life. I was listening to records when I was a child then when I was a youth Walkman’s were all the craze (and “boomboxes”) But there were also 8 tracks still floating around. Then in the ‘80s we started seeing C.D.’s coming into our awareness and now we have mp3’s and digital music.
I thought that it was interesting that within my lifetime there have been so MANY changes in the way we listen to music. (And watch movies and communicate.) But as I thought about it I realized that there has been more change in the past thirty years than there really has in the 100 years before that.
Think about it. When I was a child, things were a LOT different than they are now. Car seats were little more than an automotive booster seat, now they are practically self-encapsulated modules, which only need a little adjustment to be space fairer worthy. (They need to be enclosed the rest of the way and have an oxygen pack.)
The idea that you could tell what gender your baby was going to be was tantamount to witchcraft, and while people thought we would have flying cars by now they really didn’t consider how they might be fueled.
Nowadays we have “Eco friendly” cars like hybrids, we have sciences and arts that would be totally foreign in concept to any of us IF THEY WERE PRESENTED TO US BACK THEN.
We can download a song to our computer or I pod or I phone or whatever.
I remember the only way to get those songs individually as a young man was to hope the radio would play it and I could record it with a tape deck. Of course I could always go out and buy the tape in the music store.
And that’s another thing what about our shopping? I remember we had a few options for shopping when I was a kid. We could go to J.C. Penney or Sears or Montgomery wards, and if they didn’t have what we wanted… well maybe they could find it in a catalog to get it for you.
NOW??? Oh hey let me look at Amazon (or Ebay or …) and wham bam thank you… and here it is. You might have to wait a few days but there it is.
With digital it is even more instant. Want a song? Click it’s yours. How about a book? Well with your Kindle or nook (or other device) again click there you have it.
I know that in other post/s I have praised some of these devices but really there was something enjoyable in the wait, the anticipation would be almost as pleasurable as the owning.
With the old ways, even if they could order it, it still would take a few weeks to get to you. Weeks of dreaming what it would be like to open the box to take out the ____________ (fill in the blank), and then to use it. If it was clothes to wear it, if it was music to listen to it if it was a book to read it…!

So I really understand what the guy on the radio was saying. My dad, God rest his soul, Never had the chance to see a digital player. (But he did have quite the collection of 8 tracks once). And I have to wonder… there are entire generations of people who didn’t see any real significant changes in technology like this.
For a couple of generations the only real option people had for storing and archiving their music was records or phonographs. Another generation had the added potential in audiotape.
But in just MY own one generation we went from records and tape through to an mp3 small enough you could mistake it for a pack of gum. (Or smaller).
Now that is pretty amazing. But it does bring up a concern for me. Oh not a worry really but… well, My children will never remember what the world was like without Blue rays (let alone D.V.D.’s) they will never realize what a party line was, at least not like you would if you experienced it. And they will not get to know the ticklish anticipation of waiting for that special something you ordered to get there.
That last sentence reminds me of the scene in the Music man, where the whole town is crowded in the street singing “the Well’s Fargo wagon is a coming”. But really that is what we are leaving behind. Is it good? I don’t know for sure.
I miss records and the memories, which spring from the pops and hisses of the needle in the grooves. I would love to own a record player still today. And it kind of makes me sad to think that A LOT of my experiences are now only going to be “shared” by “history buffs” but on the other hand music has NEVER been so portable.
And it is really nice, as I get older and I want to use my time more wisely, to have the opportunity to get what I want to read or hear NOW instead of waiting for it.
Well Que sera sera. I suppose that the future will be just as amazing. I can’t wait.