INGERSOLL: Yearning For Nostalgia — Humans Turning Back The Clocks By Getting Back To Basics

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Greetings, Dear Reader,

My wife and I got into an argument during the drive home yesterday, or at least, what constitutes an argument between us.

We never argue.

She asked why I wasn’t talking to her. Partially it was because my face was still numb from fillings I had just gotten. But also I was on my phone texting a friend.

“What are you texting about?”

I could tell she expected something trivial.

“How human beings are starting to wake up to the downsides of technology and go back to old, analog modes of media consumption. Actual printed books, physical copies, etc. People like magazines again.”

She gave me an ‘oh really c’mon’ look.

“No, seriously. Look, I’ve nailed a number of trends in recent times.”

“Like what?”

THE GREAT TECH RETROGRADE

I’m timestamping this one. I’m not claiming it. It isn’t mine. I didn’t start the fire. I am calling it though. I have been for months, in fact.

Did you know new independent print magazine launches are up 15%? Yes, the print magazine market is growing. So is advertising. AdTechs have discovered that you are 70% more likely to remember an ad you saw in your own hands, a physical ad, than one you saw on a website or in digital advertising.

That’s wild.

You know what else is up after several (decade+) years of shrinkage? Book sales. Only slightly, but they’re up. People are also taking film photos again. Film photography purchases are spiking. So are purchases of vinyl records. Is it just the hipsters? Negative.

Sales of physical media like DVDs shrank consistently 20% year over year … until last year. The industry shrank just 9% last year, but that’s not even the most interesting part. Sales of 4K UHD DVDs were up 12%.

Do you still doubt this is happening, babe? Well … HBO is releasing a $150 remastered box set of “The Sopranos” this December for the holidays. That’s a massive bet, and it’s likely to pay off.

I’m not done. Not even close.

While the trend of public school systems banning devices from student use and teacher pedagogy reaches absolutely tidal levels – hello textbooks and chalkboards – another trend is on a distinct and, frankly odd, upswing.

Dumb phones.

Yes, there are dozens of start-ups marketing dumb phones that only do texting and calls. Some have hundreds of thousands of users. Normal people are going back to checking email and Facebook when they get to a desktop computer.

Do you know how long it’s been since that was a habit for basically anyone, much less hundreds of thousands of people? At least 20 years, I would guess.

The big question is why, Dear Reader, why is this happening. And the answer is actually as intuitive as the mobile software that enslaved us over the past two decades.

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It’s better.

Everything about analog is simply better. It’s better in every way imaginable too. Are you old enough to remember not caring about checking your email until tomorrow morning? Do you remember your mental state? Was that not better by every stretch?

People are buying HD Blu-ray because it’s literally better viewing. Don’t believe me? Check the stats. Streaming’s highest, most premium settings push about 15-25 mb/s to your TV. Sometimes as high as 40. Modern hard copy HD Blu-ray displays at 128 mb/s.

Oh, did I forget to mention you don’t have to subscribe to The Sopranos box set?

Ownership is 1000x better than a subscription service, and everything, even your printer ink, is a subscription now. I can own a book. I can own a song, forever, without paying Apple a monthly fee?

What about reading? Well, you read the stats on ads. Why is retention higher?

Turning physical pages actually encourages your brain to map the topography of a story. And here’s the kicker: It takes less bandwidth to do.

A recent study showed how building that map took more brain power over digital or tablet reading. It’s harder to map the story, and so it takes more out of the reader to read and comprehend. You are more tired and more distracted after reading 10 pages on a Kindle than you are reading 10 from an actual book.

Where am I actually going with all this? The answer is I don’t really know. All I know is it’s happening.

Board game sales are up too. People like the excuse it gives them to sit in front of other people, live and in color. Imagine that.

There’s also more people going to Mass. That’s one thing you can’t really mail in, an actual congregation. Maybe all the talk we’ve heard of online “communities” is actually just bullshit. Maybe communities need to actually commune. Maybe people are naturally moving in that direction, naturally rejecting this new status quo, and this trend is just the early sprouts, popping up from the earth.

Isn’t “touch grass” all the more illuminating of a digital meme, in light of all this?

People say lately that eventually the internet will be entirely robot generated. Made by robots, but crucially, made for robots.

Frankly, I’m okay with that.

Tech will attempt to fight this trend, I’m sure. 

Unfortunately, we’re human. Flesh and blood. Sorry, Zuck, class will not be held in the metaverse.

Not now. Not ever.

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What do you make of all of this?

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