Discover Challenge

Analog

Embrace nostalgia and share your analog passions online.

It’s not news that we live in a transitional period. We have talked about, written about, and explored the transition from analog to digital. It’s affected how we talk, how we connect, how we document our memories, even how we eat. Handwritten letters versus Facebook Messenger. Photo albums versus Instagram accounts. Farmer’s markets versus FreshDirect.

In a recent Discover piece, we highlighted a handful of photographers who continue to make their art using film, eschewing the digital photography route. Their work harkens back to a time when we didn’t have the option of immediate satisfaction. When a camera was used to capture a moment in time, one that we would only revisit weeks or months later when the film was developed.

The writer of Analog Anecdotes describes the “Lazy period,” that time between when a photograph was taken and when it’s actually viewed:

It is a time when the camera stays weeks on the shelf before I take it out for a walk to shoot one picture (or none). The obvious disadvantage is that it seems to be taking forever to get my hands on the developed pictures. But the pro is that eventually I have an absolutely unique set of images, unrelated in subject, location, and — usually — inspirational source.

Analog nostalgia isn’t just for photography buffs. Personally, I’m still a huge fan of letter writing, whether that’s multi-paragraph essays in email form or handwritten notes sent on stationary. For audiophiles, there’s even an online subscription for vinyl records.

While analog is often pitted as at war with technological advances, there’s also a symbiotic relationship between the two. Of all the analog photographers listed in our Discover piece, their work is shared, in part, digitally and online. Others, like Andrea Lambe, explore both mediums. For those who appreciate old-fashioned, tangible skills, technological advances help to both share those skills and aid in their preservation.

For this week’s challenge, share your analog passions with the world. In many cases, we’re given a choice: either go the analog route or upgrade to the digital version. What are your analog obsessions? Are you a book lover who prefers the crisp feel of freshly printed pages over the much more slender convenience of an eReader? Or an audiophile who enjoys the physical experience of placing the needle down on a record instead of pressing play on a Spotify playlist?

Leverage the internet. Tell us about that old-fashioned thing you love and share it with the world online so that it may be preserved digitally, indefinitely.

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  5. My deepest analog relationship is probably writing a lot, everyday, using pen and paper. Even if I have a word processor sitting blank in front of me, ready to be filled in properly, with support in the form of spell check and readable fonts, I reach for pen and paper. I feel like I can work out things better on it, not be afraid of accidentally erasing something, or forgetting to save something, or even losing the document. It’s not even some sort of a romantic, sentimental thing, as it is with some people and fancy stationery. It’s just a necessity, something natural, that I can’t forgo.

    Liked by 5 people

    1. I do that as well! Often with a journal, but even more so when I make a list of what I need to do for the day. It’s weird, but it helps me organize my thoughts so much better too 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I am the same way. I love to write with Pen and Paper. Various pens… I have so many different types of pens. Then I transpose it to being typed. I’m on the computer all day for work. I enjoy the feel of the pen gliding on the paper, the crispness of a new blank page! Seeing the ink on the paper! It’s beautiful!

      Liked by 4 people

  16. I love this post…Even as anew blogger whenever i think of what to lost first i create a handwritten outline before typing amd publishing …writing just seems to work

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  17. This may be kind of off-beat, but I love depositing checks in an actual brick-and-mortar bank rather than the e-deposits on bank apps. I think I just value the physical interaction of depositing money as a part of the money making/saving process.

    Liked by 2 people

  18. My passion for photos and writing stems from my grandmother’s scrapbooks, photos, cards and the countless stories behind them she passed down to me. I started my blog to bring those pieces of the past in an intentional, digital format and relate them to today. I have always been a bit of a contradiction in terms – loving the old and the new.

    I think for as much as we have gained from technological advances, there was something special about the times when we made time for one another without glancing down at our phones to check for a text, FB, or play games to pass the time.

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  19. I recently had a realization that music is still alive within the digital compressions of MP3s. Within the lost confines of Spotify and Youtube. From this nowhere place, I can still connect it to my soul. But I discovered that my body and soul are the analog ground wherein the music begins. It is only reflected back via digital processes. This realization has been a great reawakening/reconnection/rediscovery of the vibrancy and aliveness of music–no matter what channels it is reflected through to me. Thank you for your thought provoking and tactile craving, grounding yet reaching, analog post.

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  20. I discover that VCR still exist when my grandparents made my children encounter cleaning. Looking back now i can reflect on VCR kept my family close. Where now you can you tube a movie are watch it on your phone.

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  26. You know I’m from the 90’s to I’m glad that I was born before the technology took over. But it’s hard for me to say what analog obsessions I’ve now Because I’m too used to my laptop and phone these days 😛 But one thing that I’ll remember is the music Cassettes I used to listen when I was a kid. I love to rewind the cassettes to listen to my favorite track, it was time consuming but it was worth it. Thanks for this post it brought some nostalgia.

    Liked by 1 person

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