AHC: Bigger Analog Counter-Culture in the 2010's

How far back would the POD need to be in order for the resurgence of analog (Moleskine notebooks, vinyl records, typewriters, etc) to be much bigger in the digital age?
 
How far back would the POD need to be in order for the resurgence of analog (Moleskine notebooks, vinyl records, typewriters, etc) to be much bigger in the digital age?

Lead paint not banned, so more kids with developmental issues are born, and can't handle new technology

Damn, do I hate vinyl snobs.

Vinyl sucked in the '70s, the cool kids who knew a decent format, went Reel to Reel. Early surround sound with quadraphonic gear, too.
 
We need to create "70s-Town". A theme park which only has 1970s tech and the news and TV shows of the decade playing on the parks TVs. No need for Hotels people would just pay for a week to live in old fashioned 1970s homes.

Of course they would all have to sign a waiver.

Events could include Draft card burnings and protests, Pong tournaments, Disco night, etc
 
Moleskine is easy: have some people on Instagram fall in love with them and start a trend, that could be a fad for a few years. Vinyl might benefit if you made the audiophile community bigger somehow, but suffers from the need to buy a record player, and, well, records, and there's just not a whole lot of people who want to rebuy their music collections so they can listen to them in a more inconvenient way. Typewriters aren't happening: they have vinyl's problems with inconvenience and expense, but without any advantages over digital word processors at all, and the people who want nice analog writing will probably go buy moleskines and nice stationery instead. You might as well try and bring back the fax machine.
 
I think an interesting POD would be an earlier, bigger problem crop up with data security. By the time the big data breaches happened to Apple's Cloud and other password compromises, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram had all become too entrenched in the culture. If there is an earlier realization at how vulnerable you become by putting so much of yourself on the Internet you could get a rejection of or at least a toned-down social media. Without the need for easy online access you could see less buy in to digital technologies and more people using analog tech. Tentative title: "No one can Hack my Film Camera."
 
I think there needs to be a differentiation here between what is essentially an aesthetic/stylistic/superficial technology applications trend (vinyls, typewriters, film cameras) and people not wanting to have a large digital footprint either in the hands of private (apple, google etc) or government (health records, online service delivery, welfare payments etc).

These are two very different things dealing with different issues. People and society as a whole can function without Facebook, Twitter and instagram etc and can live without posing around on typewriters or be vinyl snobs. But you take away modern digital infrastructure and business and government wouldn’t be able to function.
 
Shame today's kids will never know the joy of playing a record on 78.

Especially when you have to wind the machine first.

Yeah, five minutes of mono recorded on a 12" shellac disk, with a top end of 11,000 Hz. Every play using those steel needles brings the quality down, too.

I noted the needles seem to wear out at a fearsome rate. I have an ancient wind-up Victrola that I bought for a song, and repaired with some thought of selling it. Turns out though, my two-year old daughter loves it.
 
Especially when you have to wind the machine first.



I noted the needles seem to wear out at a fearsome rate. I have an ancient wind-up Victrola that I bought for a song, and repaired with some thought of selling it. Turns out though, my two-year old daughter loves it.

I was thinking more of playing a 33 on 78 so it sounds like Alvin and the Chipmunks.
 
How far back would the POD need to be in order for the resurgence of analog (Moleskine notebooks, vinyl records, typewriters, etc) to be much bigger in the digital age?
Not that far. Earlier acceptance of LGBT, especially trans people than OTL. I've noticed a curious trend of liking vinyl music and being trans in my social circle so there may be something to this. Does vinyl contain precursors to estrogen?
 
We're starting to see developmental issues caused by an overreliance on tablets and Alexa like products.
We also saw all the issues with social network manipulations during elections.

Have all that come in earlier by a couple years and you'd have a way stronger reaction against all the Silicon valley magic
 
Where was your pocket money paper round when you were a kid, Beverly Hills 90210?

You could get awesome deals on Japanese gear in the PX and BX in those days.

People thought Japan made cheap junk. Sony, AKAI and the rest were awesome deals, like even the Guitars imported by Ibanez or the Tokai. Better made and sounded just as good as the Strats and such.

so yeah, you could get great stuff for not a lot of $$$
 
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