How we used to do it: Remembering traditional media in a digital world

The world is evolving far too quickly for us to keep up with it.

Formerly our main forms of entertainment were spending time with family and playing with the dog, but in our advanced digital age, we’re all glued to our flat-screen TVs in high definition, our laptop computers that surf the web at lightning speed and our mobile phones that are almost like handheld computers that also fit in your pocket and make calls.

Let’s take some time to reflect on the beauty that was traditional media and how all that’s changed in our new media world.

Before big blogs, you only read the NY Times

News that was hot off-the-wire was the only news that you knew. It was simple. You looked at the big headlines, read a bit into the details, and didn’t worry too much about all the other things in life.

Now, we’re overflowing with information, reading blogs with added commentary to today’s news, understanding what’s happening in the world more in-depth because information not only contains announcements, but analysis.

Before YouTube, there was TV

You anxiously waited for your Prime Time television shows to come on, and you never missed an episode because it would be a long time and an arduous task to make up the lost airing. It was simple, you watched TV from 8 – 10pm every weeknight.

Now you’re on YouTube, watching viral video after viral video from when you get out of work until dinner time, then after dinner time, you’re back on to watch more videos until it’s time to pass out at 1 or 2 am.

Before Netflix, you had the movie theatre

Going to the theatres was one of the nicest pleasures on a Friday night. You take your date or a few friends and get ready to get sucked into 2 hours of non-stop, audio and visual entertainment that only a real movie theatre could provide with its surround sound, large screen projection and overpriced and over greased popcorn.

Now, with movies on-demand, having the ability to stream top flicks and borrow unlimited amounts of DVDs without late charges, you’re more than comfortable staying in bed to watch a movie than travel to the theatre and spend $10 on one film ticket.

Before the Kindle, you had paperback books

Remember that nice shelf of books you used to have? The same one with all the classics your father read to you when you were a child, with the books that got you through those boring high school years spent at home, and even those that you get comfort in curling up to some nights after a long, long day of work.

Now, when space is becoming a limited resource and buying titles off of your Kindle is quick, easy and cheap, you can’t help but take advantage of the fact that you can access thousands more books than your apartment could handle, and thousands more books than you can physically read.

Before Digg, Reddit and even StumbleUpon, you asked for a trusted friend’s opinion or waited for someone to email you a useful link

You loved when a friend shared something useful. It was like a nice treat at the end of your day when you looked at your personal email inbox and saw a friendly message from your trusted friend sharing an interesting article to a story that you otherwise would not have seen.

Now, links and such are flying every which way, and you’re prone to click anything you see with a big, eye-catching headline. While our abundance of information has been such a great thing, sometimes you get the longing for more simplicity.

This digital age has surely changed the way we consume media, and clearly has its pros and cons. But it’s at least nice to look back every once and a while and think about the way things used to be, even if we decide to continue moving away from the traditional methods.