How Technology Is Muting Our Capacity to Communicate
From analog dreams to digital dystopia
Last week, I visited a nursing home and was struck by the sense that I had stepped back in time. It felt like I was in a time capsule.
The place was filled with relics of a bygone era: cassette tapes featuring music from before I was born, VHS tapes, and a fax machine. In one of the corridors, I even saw a coin payphone.
One of the nurses was connecting an analog TV set with a coaxial cable.
Seeing all these relics of a pre-digital world reminded me of how communication used to be so much different — and, ironically, simpler and better — than it is today.
When I was around ten years old, my parents bought their first video recorder, a Philips with Video2000 cassette tapes. Later, they switched to VHS, a monumental change for me as a kid. I remember being amazed by the wider availability and expansive collection of movies at the local video rental store.
Similarly, when I got my first job, I was equally amazed by the fax machine. It was a real, nuisance when we ran out of the required thermal paper.
These technological developments represented an era where technology enhanced my life without overwhelming it.
