My brother came to stay and gave out to me about our (tiny) CD collection. “It’s all on Spotify,” he said reprovingly, “You should throw out those CDs”. I wouldn’t say that he is the king of organisation himself so this was particularly annoying. Yesterday afternoon, I went through all the CDs and put them in alphabetical order (this is how I get my kicks) and I found ones I hadn’t thought of, let alone listened to, in years. Since then I’ve had them on rotation on the CD player which I am enjoying very much. Over the years Mr. Waffle’s tastes and mine have merged in many areas but I would have to say that his CD choices have stood the test of time (Ben Folds) better than mine (Emilia); still I am enjoying both the cool and the naff music choices. It’s somehow much more satisfying than waiting for the Spotify algorithm to throw out something.
Since Covid we have had the Irish Times delivered to the house daily; it’s pricey but I love it. And all my children are more or less on top of the vanishing art of how to turn the pages of a broadsheet newspaper. Middle child was reading the paper one day and said to me, I paused at that article and I thought, “Oh no, my algorithm will send me loads of related content on this but then I realised that I could safely pause anywhere.” Time permitting we all flick through the paper in the morning and pick up yesterday’s news (you are always 24 hours behind everyone else, if you get the news from the paper, I am afraid). Mr. Waffle does the cryptic crossword, I do the Sudoku; each to his own. The Irish Times has just announced a price increase and Mr. Waffle is inclined to jack it in but I am arguing for its retention. I’ll keep you posted on developments.
Anyway, I was pretty pleased to come across this podcast in praise of the analogue world (though the definition of analogue is broader than most people would allow and the title of the episode – Everyone Online is Going Analog – does raise some questions); maybe daily newspapers will outlive me after all. What’s that? Did I send the podcast to my brother? You betcha.
As someone who regularly cycles an 11 mile round trip to buy our daily paper, I say keep it! Reading online is very much not the same, and not just because of the dreaded algorithm.
I agree. Your vote matters – I will be using it as part of my campaign.