Digital depression.

I have a love/hate relationship with technology. I see what is possible and how far we’ve come and I am fascinated. I talk to old people and I am often amazed at their casual references to things that seem prehistoric to me today. Things like horses pulling wagons through muddy roads (roads that are now four lane highways), families gathering around the radio to hear the local news and the Catholic church still being relevant.

It boggles my mind to think about what changes I might see in my lifetime. If there are people around today who have seen the invention of such staples as TV, automobiles, air travel and the internet, then what kind of change is in store for us over the next fifty years? No doubt a good deal of the advances will be in porn, but I digress.

The one thing I fear losing is the CD. I love CDs. They were the first medium through which I truly came to love music. The first CD I ever bought was Monster by REM. I was really excited because I had saved my Christmas money and went in together with my sister to buy a CD player. Not having to rewind the tape or flip it over anymore? That was a sweet deal. I suppose it is no different than the generation before me who love themselves some vinyl records. Will old people and future hipsters be the only market for CDs one day? I have to think so.

But in the past, when one physical medium was replaced, it was with another physical medium. Vinyl to cassettes to CDs. VHS to DVD to Bluray (laser disc, LOL). The change today is from physical to digital, and with that is gone the allure of the album. You can download the songs immediately, from anywhere, from a number of music sites. You can even download them illegally (not the same thing as immorally) for free. The extras that come with the album such as the artwork and the lyric book and whatever goodies the band curiously threw in there cannot compete with the price and convenience of digital music.

Those extras matter to me, though. I love the anticipation of fighting through the shrink wrap to get into the album. I love discovering the unique design on the painted side of every album. I hold the CD delicately, in reverence for the awesomeness of the music it holds and the fragility of the playing surface. I take great care of my CDs. They always go back into their original case and very few that I’ve ever owned have acquired scratches. I can’t think of a time that I lost the lyric book or stained it with a coffee ring. CDs are precious to me.

Countless forms of technology will change and even disappear in the coming years. Some dramatically. You think printed newspapers will exist in 10 years? I kind of doubt it. And I could care less. Take the papers. Take the books. Take the TVs. But please, let me keep my CDs.