Tangible vs. Digital
Even though Cottage Country is going digital with the sad but staedy penetration of high-speed Internet access and satellite TV, it is still pretty much an analog world.
If you look around many cottages, you’ll see tangible, non-digital things such as books, magazines, newspapers, a TV that, if you’re lucky pulls in the CBC, and a radio. And if you’re wondering where VCRs and all those VCR tapes go to die, many of them will be found in Cottage Country. 
Without the Web and a 500-channel TV universe, it’s a different world. Books that would be ignored get pulled off shelves, old movies are watched, boardgames played, walks taken and talks had.
It makes me wonder what the digerati would do if the Web was suddenly knocked out of commission for an extended period of time. With no Web, e-mail, Twitter and Facebook would we look longingly at our now less-interesting computers, and start to call each other on the phone, write letters, read more books and go for walks?
As life gets more digital, the analog world is brushed aside as antiquated and less useful or valuable. Not that progress is a bad thing but some parts of the analog world are worth keeping.
Then again, we’re still reading books and newspapers, and listening to AM radio so perhaps there is still hope for analog.
July 29th, 2008 at 10:01 am
i was delighted to find the cottage we were at last week had an extensive DVD collection, HD cable on a flat screen and wireless internet.
although the rental company not giving us the wi-fi password was a bit of a downer!
July 29th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Hi Mark,
funny you should write this - I wrote up a guest post for FRW and sent it to Sean. It’s why Cottages rock and one of the reasons is you read, watch and play things you wouldn’t normally do at home.
D
July 29th, 2008 at 10:59 am
My internet at home has been down for the past couple of days, and I’ve never had cable TV there so for the past couple of days I’ve been living the cottage lifestyle: getting outside a lot and reading books.
I haven’t been able to do work from home or been overly tempted to check feeds, Twitter or email.
It feels awesome.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Each time I receive a bill from Rogers I wonder if I even should be “connected” at home. Spending all day on the computer the last thing I want to do when at home is start the blasted thing up and keep feeding this aging, and largely mind-numbing, process. Unless I have a specific task, our machines stay off. On the analog radio front, I jumped into the satellite radio arena last Christmas and am (to my suprise) loving the experience! I listen all day at work, in the evenings at home, and on weekends no matter where I happen to be. I wonder if the recently announced merger, however, will impact my ability to use my XM service positively or negatively…
All of that being said, I am online at UofT during a particularly boring portion of a seminar writing this comment, and that’s pretty cool.
July 30th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Beautiful post Mark! I personally do not have a cottage, but am in regular attendance at a friends home away from home. They have internet up there, but to be honest nobody every touches it unless its an emergency. The family in question may be a unique example, but even with technology all around them, they still choose to dust off those long lost paper backs and fiddle with the loud and cumbersome VCR. I wouldn’t count out the tangible world just yet. There is an artistic and to some extent nostalgic feeling that will always keep us coming back … at least for the next few decades.
July 30th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Mark,
Your post reminded me the Northeast Blackout of 2003. During the Blackout, I went into a bit of panic mode at the thought of being completely disconnected from the world (i.e.: friends, family, and particularly the news). However, there was a time when continual connection wasn’t an option - we had to make do with the tools at hand and therefore need to remain aware of that. With that said, I still prefer a good book over digital cable any day.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:54 am
Well I don’t enjoy being disconnected from my web (and my work!) but I still find plenty of time in everyday life to read (and I mean read a lot, 2-3 books many weeks and I have young kids too!) and I talk regularly on the phone with my good friends. I just also find time to chat online!