Marching Toward Analog
How do we address our relationships to convenience and corporate dominance?
Growing up, we didn’t have oodles of cash for the latest electronics. We saved money here and there in ways that made stronger memories and constructed more family time. When we traveled, we often filled the minivan up with camping gear and camped along the way to wherever we were going. I had my meager electronics prepared for travel though. As long as I hoarded AAA batteries, I could keep my Game Boy Pocket running and fuel the book light I’d rubberband to the Game Boy for nighttime gaming. I had to plan specifically for the AA’s needed to keep my Walkman going. I still remember the distinct slow down Weird Al’s Bad Hair Day would get when the batteries crept to their end.
I don’t miss lugging around batteries, or unique AC adapters for single devices. After having a car filled with CDs in the early aughts, I was excited and relieved that an iPod and a cassette tape adapter could kit out my car with hundreds of albums. Hell, I could charge my Game Boy Advance SP off the car’s auxiliary outlet!
By the mid 2010s I’d sold my soul to the iPhone, like most of us. And, as my Sony MDR-7506 headphones wore down from extreme use, I became hellbent on finding good, affordable wireless headphones. I had the kind with corded earbuds and plastic carriage that sits around your neck. I watched friends go through Beats like they were disposable. I went through several different earbuds. They all sucked. I’m sure someone out there can recommend a nice, expensive set of Bose headphones. But after the last several pairs, including some abominable Raycons, I’m out of the wireless game.
I know I harp on Spotify and tech companies ad nauseum, and I’m about to do it again. Every writing guide you’ll ever find says to write what you know and right now I know the fight with technology as it pertains to music really well. But I know you know Spotify is destructive and greedy. If you didn’t already know, I told you so in Thankful for the Fire, Serfing the Net, and Let’s Burn Down Our Playlists. I’m trying to hold someone else’s feet to the fire today: mine.
My advancement from a battery collecting goblin, to an iPhone dependent goblin with a monocle wasn’t extremely fast, but it was never a hard choice because I’m easily caught up in new, flashy things and their promise of convenience. I’ve had several fun, flashy things that lose their allure pretty fast. As it turns out a new way of doing something isn’t always the most convenient and the novelty wears off. I’m looking at you Amazon Echo. You’re just a voice controlled light switch and timer I should have never invited in my home.
Convenience is a powerful thing. We don’t live in a world where free time is celebrated. If we can do something faster, or do two things — three things, or four things — at a time, we demand that as a norm of ourselves. While I largely blame our work culture for the vile acceptance of overworking ourselves and wearing too many hats, convenience conveniently conditions us to make these behaviors feel normal.
I’ve always credited Weird Al for saving me from the boyband era. While everyone around me was trying to decide if the Backstreet Boys really were edgier than NSYNC I was debating if Running with Scissors would be as good or better than Bad Hair Day. I wasn’t as well-rounded as a listener needs to be to get every reference Weird Al made with his parodies. But, Bad Hair Day served as a convenient catalogue of references to music and style I’d come to love as an adult. I got a lot in one place, which was nice and made branching out easy. It was a valuable convenience.
Everyone knows how the convenience of malls crushed downtowns, and how the convenience of big box stores and the internet came to crush malls, or how the internet crushed them all. Time is valuable, so it becomes easy to justify doing everything all in one place. Eventually, the convenience came with voice activated spybot advertisement machines that sell us the lowest quality version of any given item. I’m not blaming anyone other than myself, though. I am constantly trapped in the convenience box.
Spotify is my biggest problem. It gives me access to so much music that I love, all in one place, while supporting the musicians the least. It’s just barely more supportive than piracy. And, to make matters worse, it takes away our intentionality. Instead of seeking new music with purpose, we can let Spotify serve us what it thinks we want. Sometimes it shows us new artists, but it loves showing AI slop. The more we look for vibes and convenience, the more we’re a part of the problem.
What’s worse for me is that I have gone to great lengths to cut Spotify off, but it’s the most toxic relationship I have right now that I just can’t quit. Earlier this year, I received a We Are Rewind cassette player, to take me back to the analog days. It’s a quirky thing that lets me connect with the old tape hiss. But I rarely use it.
A few months back, I was tired of wireless earbuds not charging, and one or the other bud not connecting. The tech is neat and convenient, but trash. I ditched my last buds for a wired pair of Koss Porta Pros. While they never need charging, I do have to take a moment to coil them into their case for safe travels. I do everything in my power to not get exhausted with the little ritual. The headphones have already out paced every wireless set I’ve had, and they sound great. They’re worth the thirty seconds of coiling. I’m worth those thirty seconds.
For the last month, I’ve been threatening to kill my Spotify. I’ve been laying groundwork to put together my own independent media server. I love giving my money to the artist instead of Spotify. But right now I’m handing money to both because, though groundwork is necessary, I’ve not taken the crucial steps to actually setting up a server. Am I just lazy? Or am I hooked on how convenient Spotify is? It’s so easy to change nothing. That status quo is hard to fight without intentionality.
Intentionality is everything in my opinion. There’s a part of me that romanticizes marching toward the analog. I want to put every song I own on cassettes and dedicate myself to the new cassette player, but I think that’s more of a daydream. Setting up a media server for my home makes much more sense, and can serve the convenience dopamine fix once I break the status quo and just do it. My intention is to be a better custodian of the arts I consume, and I know it will serve that intention well.
Currently the best approach I have to consuming my media with intentionality is in the evenings while cooking. Cathryn and I have started a regular routine of turning on the radio, or picking out a record and playing it. Records can be hard to pick if we don’t have something in mind. But, we bought everything we own because we love it. Anything works, but the beauty is that we picked it up, put it on the turn table, and listened to it. Without baking some intention into what we own and collect, things we ought to enjoy become props and clutter. A record is meant to be played, not to be clutter. And, every time we play it, we play it for free with no subscription.
I am still striving to break up with Spotify. It’s going to be hard. I have a lot to implement to get our collection into a media server. And, I just got my Spotify Wrapped which gave me interesting insights and little jolts of dopamine that makes me sentimental toward an app that I know does magnificent harm. It’s so incredibly hard.
My plea for you this winter is not to jump into the analog the way I long to, but to take a moment to consider your conveniences and how they serve your goals and intentions? Are there things you’re hooked on because they’re easy, even if they don’t support your ethics or goals? What can you do to be more intentional in how you interact with the world? We’re not going to tear down the corporate hellscape all on our own. But the more we act with purpose, the more our collective action becomes a movement. Take a moment and consider walking those three blocks instead of driving. Take a few seconds to discover where your goods come from before you buy them. Maybe pick up a CD, a tape, or a record, and play it on purpose.
For the record Boy bands are great…