Am I getting too old?
I was just thinking to myself today whether or not I'm becoming old-fashioned as I enter into my middle age. I grew up with the birth of the internet, the introduction of the computer into every home, the smartphone, and streaming services overtaking the radio and television as the main means of reaching people. So why am I now going back on all of these marvels just to feel more comfortable?
I think the epiphany came to me yesterday morning when I realised that I was sitting in the garden with a cup of tea that I had brewed in a teapot, a magazine that I bought, by chance, because it had a lovely photo about my local train operator on the cover and an article about how they've done so well lately, and my radio. So it was that it struck me that I could be sat here in exactly the same way twenty, forty, sixty years ago, and nothing would be fundamentally different. Yet it was so... relaxing. Not just because eating breakfast in the garden on your day off is a treat everybody needs to experience regularly, but because I felt like I had so much more control.
Starting with the magazine - I can't get over how much easier it is to read compared to a phone, laptop, tablet or e-reader. The pages are bigger, they don't emit light, the font is clear and sharp and I can just read so much of it at once. Why did I ever stop reading magazines? It's almost as if there's hundreds of years of refinement behind them to make them better suited to doing what they do best, which is being read. I used to read the Official PlayStation (1&2) each month during the fleeting moments when I wasn't playing the free demo disc (bloody hell do I miss those!), either in bed or on the bog. So perhaps this was just nostalgia? I read plenty of articles and posts on my phone each day without issue, so why was this better? Was it the novelty? Well, no. In short, it was because it was I could read it at my own pace. It didn't go anywhere. There weren't any distracting adverts (or blank spots where the adblock struck them out) that appeared while scrolling. There wasn't any scrolling. I could just read and read and read and read and the words just flow. I don't think I could stand to read a thirteen-page pair of articles on the technical details of the overlapping duties of government bodies overseeing the transition away from privatised railways in the UK as they migrate back to public ownership, or the cost of subsidies between the years that propped up the train operating companies during that period of time (including cost-per-passenger-mile) on my phone. Or at least, not in one sitting. I'd either be too distracted or have to have a few goes chipping away at it. Or more likely, I'd start it, then rediscover it weeks and months later when I'm culling umpteen tabs in my browser.
Well, clearly the prospects for magazines are high. I've since bought the issue for this month, as well as the most recent copy of Private Eye and I'm enjoying both immensely. So why the radio? Well I actually like my little radio. I bought it before the pandemic when it was £40. The same make and model, nearly a decade on, is twice that price. I couldn't tell you why. But I love it. It has FM tuning as well as DAB+, and there are benefits to both, but it has to be said that the quality of many, many DAB stations in the UK are abysmal due to companies using heavily compressed audio for their broadcasts. And FM stations are still supported in the UK, many with RDS (the thing that has station data like what song is playing) too, so it's nice to have access to both. But what are the alternatives? Music streaming? Well true, if I want a made-up playlist of unskippable music with adverts, the Spotify definitely does that. But the difference is that I can just change station if I want to avoid adverts. Or better yet, I can switch to a BBC station which doesn't have adverts at all due to being funded by the public! Or, if I want even more control, another alternative is to use my Fiio X3 digital audio player that I bought back in 2017. A device I bought, ironically, because I was sick of Spotify even back then. A device which actually boasts the best audio playback of everything I own, barring perhaps my CD player. However, it lacks a speaker. I have a speaker, but it's cumbersome. Plus, I don't want to have to set up several playlists each time. No, my Fiio is a device best used when listening to music is all I want to do, rather than have it as background noise. Plus, it doesn't have access to talk stations or radio dramas, which I'm surprised are still quite popular. I guess the podcast didn't quite ruin that for everybody at least. So the portable radio it is! In fact, so portable, that I even took it with me to the Czech Republic several times. I miss you, Rádio Blaník. I will keep a preset saved for my next holiday. It just isn't the same listening via a web browser.
Okay, so what about the tea? Why a teapot? Well, aside from the fact that many tea bags were made of plastic or bleached, having a teapot means I can make stronger or weaker cups of tea, or even just adjust the amount I make if I want to use bigger or smaller cups. I might even be making tea for me and my sister, or guests, so there's a lot of flexibility to be had. It's often cheaper, too. However, I think it's part of a much larger set of changes I've been making. I dug out my parents' old butter dish recently. I just prefer butter over spread. There's still debate over whether spreads are actually worse than butter, but we do know how butter behaves with our bodies, so the trick is just moderation. And as I said, I just prefer the taste. And I realised that there's little benefit to spreads as, thanks to the dish, I can just take it out of the fridge in the morning, go to the toilet and shower, and within twenty minutes it's already soft. It then goes back in the fridge while I'm at work or overnight and it'll last ages. Same goes for sugar; sweeteners have their place, but they just aren't for me. More power to you if you prefer them, though! I am not here to talk people out of using them here. I just like brown sugar in my tea, but not too sweet.
So it goes on, with more and more little things that would seem old-fashioned. I refrain from most social media, although, that's a dire situation in itself. I use Reddit more like a forum. I use forums. I don't understand the appeal of Discord servers. Give me a public place to read old posts, please. Even YouTube; if you give me a video with "/short/" in the URL, I will replace it with a "/v/" to turn it into a regular video with accessible formatting. I won't even click it. I will copy it, paste it to the URL/search bar, then edit it before hitting "go". Honestly, if somebody could make that a Firefox extension, I'd be very grateful. Same story for Instagram and TikTok. I will only watch a video that somebody has sent me, but it will be the only video I watch. And if they require a login/account to view it, which is disturbingly common, I will instead use a video downloader and watching it on a player instead, then delete it when I'm done. Is it more hassle for me? Yes. But it isn't hassle that I've made for myself. This is artificial. Manufactured. These are hurdles and barriers that are placed by the corporations, companies and websites themselves in order to get as much from us as possible. So I will continue to limbo under them for as long as I can, until I decide it is no longer worth my time. For places like Twitter, that time has already passed.
Back to the original question. Am I getting old? Yes. Good. With age comes wisdom and experience. I'm using both to have better control over what I do. I am a Luddite, but not in the way that shareholders would have you believe. I don't hate technology in the slightest. But I do hate it being used against me at every turn. I should be in control of the technology I use. I shouldn't have hidden microplastics and carcinogens in my food, or have films or even video games removed from my libraries after I have bought them. I hate knowing that a company will deliberately make a website version worse just so that you will be more likely to use their app to feed you adverts at best, but more likely steal and sell your data at worse with quite intensive tracking and spying software. But at the very least, for now, you can have privacy guards and tracking blockers for your web browsers (although, not Chrome or Safari. Please stop using those. Please.). However, not everything is safe. Even your operating system is trying to steal your personal data and leaving it vulnerable to those that wish to steal it. Microslop is such an accurate moniker. I am so close to making the jump to Linux, but I don't know if I'm ready for such an upheaval. I think I will have to get my hands on a used laptop and get installed there first before turning that into my main device. But I will do it, because it's clear that the very wealthy would prefer that things would get much, much worse for you and I at every available opportunity.
So look, I am in a place of privilege with all of this. I either inherited some of the older possessions, such as the butter dish and cutlery, or I bought my stuff such as my CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays and games many, many years ago and held onto them. I also recognise that space constraints and piracy are also to things to consider here as well. And hey, who am I to judge? After all, if buying isn't owning, then piracy isn't stealing. And if you don't have the funds or space to keep hold of the physical media, then what else are you supposed to do? After all, piracy doesn't affect sales anyway. But I do suggest getting your hands on a magazine every now and then. Books, too. In fact, get yourself a library card. They're free, and so are the books you borrow. You can even bring your own books and read in the library. The space is there for you regardless. Plus, they do much more than just books, and they'll even order you in something from somewhere else if it isn't on their racks that day.
Ultimately, what I'm saying is that I'm getting older, and I'm getting sick of other people trying to commandeer my life. You likely are as well. So hopefully, if you've read this far, you'll understand where I'm coming from and similar changes. But again, that's up to you. I can't make you. But i do suggest giving it a try if you can. If nothing else, having control over your own life is surprisingly refreshing, and you may find it leads you to doing more things for yourself, developing new habits and skills, and ultimately, being happier. And who wouldn't want that? That's why I do it.
