Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Hard or Soft?


I’ve heard too often the line, “my laptop is my life.” Most times though, I think they mean their lives are in their laptops.

Today, this is in fact possible as almost everything has a “softcopy” counterpart. For one, this generation no longer invests on photo albums full of developed pictures with handwritten captions. We now rely on programs like I-Photo that automatically sorts uploaded pictures into events and even has face recognition for the forgetful. Second, many law students opt to just download cases from the net instead of spending on photocopying tons of SCRA. Some also bring laptops to class and type their notes so that it will be easier to edit into reviewers for the exams. Third, most bookworms now think twice about buying expensive books especially when an e-book is available for free download. There are so many other things that mean the world to us and we choose to save them instead as .doc, .pdf and .jpeg in the hope that our laptops never crash.

The swift pace at which new technologies are made have probably resulted in a paradigm shift especially for the younger generations--everything can be found online. Even better, everything can be downloaded whether free or for a price. I remember my friend whose 7-year old sister called her to say, “ate I checked on the internet if Santa is real!” I also recently read an article in Inquirer about how Amazon.com is making it easier for customers to give Kindle e-books as gifts this Christmas by sending them to the recipients via email.[1]

Surely it’s all very convenient, but sentimental saps like myself still miss hardcopies and long stories. These you can hug, hold, savor, smell, eat even. When I get older, I still want to have photo albums in the sala for visitors to breeze through; and a library full of books even if they collect dust and smell ancient; and a Christmas tree full of gifts for the family to open at Christmas eve; and while we're at it, I’d also like a collection of postcards and handwritten letters, some chocolate wrappers and an occasional pressed rose. :p

Ma. Anna Katrina C. Eustaquio, (2nd Blog Entry)

3 comments:

Maricris L. Real said...

Nothing compares to the smell and feel of a hardcopy book. Especially on a cool evening when you have nothing to do.:)

Maricris L. Real said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
katrina sy said...

I think this evolution is necessary since more and more people are living in condos where space is a primary concern. Having everything in softcopy is convenient and practical. But yes, softcopies don't bring about feelings of nostalgia like an actual photo album does... :)