2021-10-29
I feel like adding my two cents* to some of the recent talk about physical media and what it means for a technology to be "obsolete".
blu.256: Is Obsolete Technology Obsolete?
ew0k: Re: Compact Discs / Is Obsolete Technology Obsolete?
My gut response to this question is similar to blu.256's. Nothing ever really becomes "obsolete", just increasingly niche. Vinyl records are a great example of this. In terms of practicality, there's no reason for vinyl to exist anymore. But that hasn't stopped the people who have helped it make a comeback in recent years.
The question really just comes down to whether you believe a technology is obsolete just because it's rendered impractical by the shiny new thing, or whether you still see value in subjective aspects like the tactile experience of starting an album or the physical pieces of art. The way I see it, if people can still find enjoyment in using it then it's just niche, not obsolete.
Ew0k in their post wrote:
And let's face it; one rather big reason the hard disk drives, memory cards, and later the cloud won out is because these things would break. All the time. How many CDs have I lost to scrapes and scratches? How many DVDs?
I personally don't see wear and tear as a huge downside to discs because, at least in the case of audio and maybe video, they're incredibly easy to back up in any format you like. If something happens to your disc, just burn another and because it's digital your new copy will be identical to the old. Minus the often cool CD art unfortunately, but at least you get to replace it with your own cool sharpie writing! CDs are incredibly cheap and accessible and I think that's because they don't really try to be invincible.
A little bit ago I wrote about burning a small collection of CDs to use in my car. The process had a few kinks at first but once I figured those out I was able to really start enjoying listening to all the CDs I had burned. Unsurprisingly I'm much more likely to listen to an album beginning to end. Because you can only fit so many discs in a glove compartment, I'm also much less picky about what I'm listening to on any given trip. There's also something weirdly fun about listening to the same albums over and over.
Just the fact that CDs change the way in which I listen to music is reason enough for them to not be considered obsolete.
- moddedBear
[*]: It just occurred to me that there's a chance the expression "my two cents" isn't as universal as once assumed since it's based on US currency. What do other people say? Or do people in other countries just concede and carry around US pennies just in case?