Evolution, Revolution and Convolution in Technology

It used to be that the purchase of a new devise was something that filled me with pleasure. Finding out what the new technology brought to the table and how I can incorporate it into my daily life was something I looked forward to. The advantage is that each new iteration was a massive change and always seemed to improve what we had before.

The record player, moving to the cassette was a massive improvement. We could easily carry a full album in our pocket. It was bullet proof, being able to be thrown around in wild abandon while looking for the cassette you wanted to hear. You could play it in your car, on the go and in your house. You could record off the radio and get "free" music. 

Then things began to change in a different way. The advances were not always positive, they were coming faster and sometimes you had to accept a lesser quality item in order to obtain the better gizmo. For example the CD, sure you could store more on the CD, sure the sound may have been better (I never noticed a difference but ok I will grant that one) but now the CD could get scratched and you could not record music onto it. 

Times change, technology improvement does not happen uniformly. My most recent example is that I have recently purchased a new Apple Mac mini as my iMac is getting on in years having been purchased back in 2017. The Mac mini is a great little computer and a wonderful price but since it does not come with a monitor, I purchased an inexpensive Samsung.  Good reviews, but a basic monitor.  My iMac still has its Retina display which is leaps and bounds better than what I have in my inexpensive Samsung. 

My old 2017 iMac is not supported and slowly software will stop working on it. So I change to a faster computer, but the display is half of what I once had. And now, I need to change out all my hard drive cables to USB C.  I am at the award technology adoption point where I have legacy technology that I need to adapt to fit with the new and improved version.  

This is why I like my old film cameras. They can still be serviced and once they are they operate as good as new. I don't have to worry about getting the right cable or battery. All I need is film and I am set. I still look forward to seeing all the technology out there. I still like playing with new toys...but now I have to consider what I am giving up.  I miss my iMac screen, I hate using special cable adapters to plug in my Firewire800 into a USB C. The hard drives are still good, not as fast as the new ones, but they have withstood the test of time. I will miss them when they are gone...but their time is near.  

So now, the change of one technology item has to change my entire workflow or I need to go out and change all peripherals at the same time, an expensive proposition to be sure.

We have gone from the evolution of the record player to a cassette, to the revolution of digital music to the convolution of not ever owning music and only streaming it....if you have internet as the loss of internet now means you do not have music.