In a past life, I was a mulleted teenage boy of the mid 1970's, and in being one of those pimple faced baby-boomers, was exposed to a flow of thought that still resonates with me to this day. Of course, I never thought I would reach the time in my life where I would be reminiscing about the “In days of my youth…” as something which occurred some two, three, and even four plus decades in the past. One thing I am certain of however, in this exponentially digital blossoming of the digital garden before me — I am and will likely remain attuned to being an analog man.

For me, this entire digital landscape being presented is a troubling and somewhat hollow lithograph; cheaply produced, and shallow, or even dare I say void, of depth — being mass produced at an alarmingly expansive rate.

I sat down yesterday with a very close friend of mine, as we discussed during an appreciated summer evening, the challenges presented living in today’s immediate, attention limiting society. One thing we are in definite agreement on is that much of it is a disingenuous representation of the real world. America is presented in pretty “Land of Wealth and Immense Opportunity” advertisements, complete with skylines and memes of upwardly mobile citizens, while Africa is presented as being war-torn, underdeveloped, atrocity filled wasteland — complete with a populace pf starving and unclothed children. And therein lies a significant part of the problem, as Africa does in fact have metropolitan areas complete with shopping malls and skyscrapers!

♫ Welcome to cyberspace, I’m lost in the fog,
Everything’s digital, I’m still analog… ♫

Digital v Analog

Speedometers may be digital and give a numeric readout, or analog and produce a lengthening rectangle (or rotating pointer). The analog output is less precise, but puts one’s speed in some perspective. An 82 and a 28 are almost indistinguishable, but a long rectangle is quite distinct from a short one, and if its length is changing, that too is manifest. The same trade-off is present with clocks and watches, digital timepieces producing precision, but lacking in all the associations a clock-face can engender.

#RealCloudWars

The fact is, there is a war happening. Its a war for attention, or the lack of it — and the clouds forming on the horizon are not wispy cirrus clouds. They are deep and powerful, capable of damaging lightning strikes and flooding entire neighborhoods off the face of the earth. For this, I appreciate the coming storm — as I feel it in myself.

With recent events, the war of the cloud and what it presents is one of digital vs. analog. Digital responds well to 3-second blips of attention, and brings massive opportunity for commercialization, and ♩ endless commercials, endless commercials, endless commercials… ♬

But not for me. I prefer the subtly of a scratched record. And I most certainly prefer a REAL cloud to that of a digitized version.

Why?

Digitized may act as an on-ramp to traverse in communicating with others, and I have an appreciation for that. But when in ends in three or thirty seconds — it serves no enduring purpose and has limited value at best. Real clouds however are reflective of life in that they are transformative, much like the stories and ensuing conversations passed on from one day to the next, or generationally. Digitized clouds and their corresponding ecosystems have taken on the presence of immediacy. Of commercials, and of noise generation from the multitude of 10-Step <What?> Success Methods for Dummies (available on Google Play for a nominal cost, or free for providing a generously complimentary and gregarious review).

No. I want the approaching storm to come, and look forward to dancing in the ensuing torrents of rainfall — washing away the stench of propaganda into the storm sewer in favor of the long-form writtten and spoken communication; reveling in all that is good and not so good, misty droplets and hardened hail, and the scratched, dented and deeply carved nuances that mankind has to offer.

♫ The whole world’s living in a digital dream,
It’s not really there — it’s all on the screen,
Makes me forget who I am…;
NO — I’m an analog man. ♫