This week on Medium, I write about the growing backlash against our always-on, mobile lifestyle, and ponder how new ways of connecting the digital to the physical might provide a remedy. Here are the first two pieces in my ongoing project titled The Revenge of Analog:
- Part I: I tried fleeing wireless for the wilds. So now what?
“The rules of disengagement: no email, no social networks, no TV, no radio, no internet (save the occasional peek at a digital map). … Our aim was to hit some of the country’s most remote regions, to hike, hang with the rocks and sea, and absorb no new digital data.” - Part II: Returning to our senses
“Why revenge, you might ask? It’s because digital isn’t all it was cracked up to be. Our desire for the offline, the tangible, the face-to-face is foiling previous predictions of a fully-digitized future, and leading to a much more interesting and multilayered alternative.”
For the next few months, I’ll be documenting related debates and inventions across a range of sites and platforms. See the Revenge of Analog Tumblr for my running log of resources, and keep an eye on this blog to see what comes next.