Progress sideways

In the early 1800s, the trend was getting away from everything in factories being done by hand. Machines were taking over! Yikes! And just as people were told in the 1950s that "you could be replaced by a computer," many Englishmen and women feared that the automatic sheep-shearing machine or the waterwheel of knitting would replace the work they had been doing in humble homes and dim factories.

The anti-machine movement grew out of fear (as most anti- movements do) and the best way to spread the fear was to make up a personage to idolize. (Sound familiar?) They came up with the legend of Ned Ludd, who was supposed to have smashed a sock-making machine in his frenzy to forestall the Industrial Revolution.

Next thing you know, no machine had a chance against the self-styled "Luddites," who roamed from factory to farmyard breaking machines and raising the devil about them. 

Spoiler alert: machines were here to stay.

Cut back now to the first time someone told you they were taking a picture by using the telephone they had in their pocket. It seems hard to imagine, how things took us by surprise, as digital technology snaked across the world, engirdling us with microbytes and URLs and websites galore.

It seems inevitable that some are saying, "Whoa! Pump the brakes a second," and rethinking over-digitalization. And according to the Washington POST, these are six activities which might be a good idea to keep around in their traditional analog fashion:

• Film cameras 
• Sending letters and postcards
• Print books and magazines
• Vinyl records
• Pens and stationery
• Collecting

Most all of us have an old film camera somewhere! Look in the drawer where the old batteries and calculators have sat since 1998. There might even be a roll of film in there, ready to drop off at Fotomat.

Or not.

I personally love letters and postcards, so if you go away on vacation this summer, let me know and I will give you my official USPS mailing address. Heck, I can even give you some stamps; I'm sure we have some in that drawer mentioned above.

Print books and magazines! Some of us love the feel of a real book in our trembling hands. If I really want a book to keep forever, I will buy it. For a one-time reading, I will borrow it from the library. 

I have a billion vinyl records so don't even.

I attend every hometown carnival I can find, to load up on refrigerator magnets, nail files, erasers, tote bags, and ballpoint pens. Arthritis has made it hard for me to write anything more compelling than a grocery list with a pen, so I think I have enough to last forever.

My bizarre collection of old LIFE Magazines occupies an area in the basement the approximate size of Rhode Island. Feel free to stop by and read about an era when people had real concerns about body odors, bad breath, and whether their boss would be suitably impressed by their china and silverware.