Upgrading By Downgrading
Article written by absurdpirate
I've started to notice a sort of trend in today's society. It's becoming a sort of counter-culture in a way. We are choosing to regress technologically.
People are choosing to downgrade their phones from a smartphone to a dumb/feature phone. People are abandoning streaming services that put thousands of movies, shows, and songs at the tip of your fingers in exchange for CDs, Vinyls, DVDs, etc. Some are decentralizing their phone, going back to digicams from the 2000s for photos, or iPods for music. Why?
It's simple, we are upgrading our quality of life by "downgrading" the mediums by which we consume content or interact with our world. We are taking back our ownership, and saying "no" to big tech, intrusive data collection, and algorithms.
People notice when songs, games, movies, or shows go missing, censored, or altered. People don't like when you use AI to upscale or interpolate the Simpsons and ruin the art. People don't like it when entire artists get de-platformed for licensing reasons. People don't like returning to shows to see music being dubbed over because of licensing reasons (seriously, I want to hear Powerman 5000's "Bombshell" when revisiting WWE PPVs featuring the Dudley Boyz).
For me personally, I started with dropping spotify in favor of CDs, Vinyls, and an iPod. The up-front cost was more sure, but over the long term I am far more mindful of the media I consume. My shelves are decorated with my favorite albums, anniversary boxsets of vinyls, limited edition CDs. If you're not keen on having a house surrounded by album art, and want a more minimalist approach, there are ways you can still own music purely digitally through Bandcamp or... other means. I've stopped taking notes in my phone in exchange for a notebook and pen. I started consuming media in different formats which allows me to appreciate media in a different way. (Seriously, if you haven't had the chance to watch The Batman on a CRT television, DO IT!) I've started to use a Sony Handycam and Canon digicam for photos and video. It helped me make a compilation of my daughter's first year in the world; felt like I was transported back to the early 2000s. I will very soon be swapping to a dumbphone and completely disconnecting from my smartphone outside of necessities (in which case I can temporarily swap the SIM card).
There's also a different feeling when you don't feel like everything is behind glass. That tactile nature of vinyls, physical notes, physical disks is important and provides a connection to your media. I've actually started listening to full albums rather than just hitting "shuffle" all the time. Have I spent more on music? Yeah, sorta, but I now OWN the music, I own the jewel case, the data on the disc, the art and notes of the pamphlet. Can you import a CD from Japan and get a thank you note with a packet of matcha attached to it from Spotify? Didn't think so. Can you get a limited run of Enema of the State with the red cross logo on the nurse digitally? Nope.
Is it inconvenient to manage your music library on iTunes? Yes. The upside? I have a more intimate connection to my music, I learn the track order, the release year, I can determine if I want to use the album artwork or (if I had the talent for it) make aesthetic custom album art.
"Downgrading" allows for a certain charm, an artistic perspective. It has the potential to romanticize the process. Sitting down with a pen and paper and writing about your day at night. Coming home from a hard day of work and putting a needle onto your favorite record. Curating your media allows YOU to become the algorithm, and allows you to discover new things not just have them be handed to you by some code with ZERO human element.
When you begin to decentralize your phone, you open yourself up for greater levels of self expression. I could try and put a digicam, iPod, notebook, phone, keys, wallet, and Nintendo DS into my pockets, but instead I opted to get a little backpack to hold my stuff in. It's green (my favorite color) and decorated with pins of my favorite bands and symbols from my favorite franchises (I drew the Cyberpunk EdgeRunners logo on mine, but am planning on drawing the Marathon game logo). Going back to iTunes, you have free reign to make custom album compilations, pull songs off the internet that you wouldn't be able to find on Spotify (and in my case there are A LOT). "Downgrading" I think is the antidote to the corporate encroachment in our lives. You may not go extreme like me, but its worth it to try and experiment what works for you. That is the point after all, to make the media you consume and the way you create to be more personal to you.