What low-tech device do you refuse to give up?
Posted at 6:00 AM on August 11, 2009
by Anna Weggel
(48 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Science/Technology
Last year, the Polaroid company announced it would stop selling its cameras and producing instant film. Now that stores have sold their stocks, the price of a packet of Polaroid film is through the roof. Rapid changes in technology make it hard to keep up with the latest gadget, and even harder to let go of the ones we love. What low-tech device do you refuse to give up?
I refuse to give up pencils. -Cat, Plymouth, MN
I refuse to give up my turn table and vinyls. Purple Rain just isn't the same crammed into an iPod -Phillip R. Minneapolis, MN
My pressure canner and clothes line. -Jason
I refuse to give up my paper daytimer calendar. -Linda Sorensen, Oronoco, MN
Low tech device I refuse to give up? That's easy. My turntable and vinyl records. -Adam Thurston
I just seem to not be able to loosen my grip on my original Nintendo system. I don't use it, it's just there, much to the chagrin of my fiance. -anonymous text message
Definitely my VCR! -Miranda, St. Paul, MN
I refuse to give up flush toilets. -Reid, Duluth, MN
My corded phone. -Jane Fisher, St. Paul, MN
I wont give up my books or newspaper. Can't curl up on the couch with my blanky and my computer! -anonymous text message
Share your reply in the comments: What low-tech device do you refuse to give up?
Comments (48)
My turntables. Recording digital music as 1s and 0s never delivered on its promise to be as good as the actual analog sounds captured as vibrations.
My ability to spell.
If I were to choose one thing right now, it would be extending the cash-for-clunkers program, but not paying a straight fee. It should be tied directly to the difference between the mileage the old car gets and the mileage the new car gets. No car that gets over 30 miles per gallon should be taken out of service.
My address book. Works fine, much faster than the computer version. And my trusty Swing-away can-opener. Why one earth would I need an electric one.
my paper calendar along with my old fashioned spiral notebook help me keep my head on straight in a very chaotic business.
Keep your Kindle ... I will never give up my books ...
I still use an old fashioned push mower. (Actually, it's a newer model, so its lightweight). I don't need to figure out where to add the gas, or how to change the spark plugs. It always works, and it doesn't pollute the environment.
Dear people, I refuse to give up flat toothpicks, except that the stores claim they can't get them anymore. They are the only things that really work for many uses. Round toothpicks don't and most of them are colored now. My daughter says she will get flat ones for me when she is in a foreign country. We needed these things for years so now they stop making them? Am I the only one to complain about this?
Sincerely, Arlene Sikkink, 33473 Cobalt Cir. NW Cambridge, MN
I won't give up my Boston Model-L hand-crank pencil sharpener.
Handwritten - and often handmade - cards for birthdays, thank yous, holidays, congrats, I love yous, and just hellos. Sent via the post office.
Also, listening to my cassettes and mix tapes from the 80s.
I love and will always use my fountain pens and Moleskine notebooks, French press, and medium format film (120) cameras. Sometimes "low" tech is better, faster, and more reliable. They also provide infinite joy because they make me sslow down to consider then next thing I write, the next cup of coffee, the next picture I shoot.
Wow- I honestly expected I'd be the only one!
I too refuse to give up my fountain pen. It's a lot easier to use a fountain pen for extended periods than a ballpoint or a pencil- both of which require a fair amount of downward pressure to write. A fountain pen, on the other hand, is best used with only the lightest touch and a loose grip. Which means no more hand cramps when writing.
You can also make or mix your own inks, repair pens, etc. You can get a high quality vintage pen that will last you 50 years for less than a week's worth of coffee, and the experience can't be beat!
I love my paper planner even though I feel like an old timer at meetings when everyone else has their electronic versions.
I just spent 2 weeks on an icebreaker going to the North Pole (and back). I am a professional photographer and will use film cameras for forever. and a day.
There were 128 passengers and 2 other professionals -on board. They ALL used digital cameras and almost every last one asked me why I did not. Arrggh! I was out-numbered 130 to 1 --and got throughly fed up explaining my reasons. All the more reason I think to stick to my guns --err, cameras, on this matter
I also tie shoelaces instead of having shoes with Velco bands.
I love my car's analog clock.
My #2 pencil.
MY B ICYCLE,CLEAN,CHEAP HEALTHY,THE TRUE POST-APPOLITIC TRANSPORTATION
my rotary-dial phone! i have to use the other phone for dialing any system with a phone tree (press 1 for ...), but who cares? i love the noise it makes...
The newspaper. Somehow reading articles, and certainly the funnies, is not the same on a computer screen. As long as they keep printing newspapers I'll keep buying them.
my manual hand drill. power tools are well and good, but none for me thank you
Turntable and records! The sound is something you can not reproduce.
My 3 film cameras. You can't beat the quality, and without batteries to die at an inopportune time, they never leave me unable to get the photo I want
Despite the number of digital to-do and checklist programs out there (including the many apps for my iPhone) I just can't give up a pen and a pad. It is the way I think, quick lists jotted down, with notes scribbled in the margin.
Vote II for Handgun:
Never leave home without my 1911 45ACP.
Thank you, John Moses Browning.
Manual can opener. You can use it wherever you want, including over the sink in case of spills, and it's easy to clean.
I refuse to give up snail mail thank you and Christmas cards.
Dial phone. They never break and work when the electricity go out.
A good knife set and cutting board. You can do the same thing with a knife and board as you can with a food processor.
Broom, dust pan, dust cloth (old towel), dust mop, and sponge mop. No electricity, no special boxed chemical-ridden ingredients. And yes you can get all the dirt off the floor. We've done it for years without swiffer!
my toaster!
My pressure cooker(s) and Weber charcoal grill.
A pen and paper. I write by hand.
When I'm at the coffee shop, I put the laptop away after checking email, and pull out a notebook and write by hand, in cursive.
My leather-bound pocket sized Day-Timer.
Fountain pens!
They get ink on your fingers and smear if you don't let your writing dry. They run out of ink more quickly than ballpoint pens.
But they're also wonderfully expressive and provide a physical connection to the act of writing that other pens and pencils can't match, and that keyboards can't even approach.
Books!
Books! With technology advancing so rapidly, I really hope that our reading pleasures are not reduced soley to devices such as the Kindle. There is nothing so soothing to me as to sit down with the feel of a book and its pages in my hand as the characters become part of me! I am reminded of "The Shadow of the Wind"...I shall be a protector of books!
My Rotary Phone! I love how it feels to dial it.
The Post-It Note.
When I want an answer from someone, I put a nice big one on their monitor, keyboard, or mouse...it's a lot tougher to dodge than an instant message or email.
You should be more careful about what you call low tech. I worked at Polaroid in the 1970's. It may be a while back, but I learned about the technology of the film. It is highly complex nuclear chemistry and will continue to be a marvel to me and, I believe, should be a marvel to others.
Low tech is the fiim camera which I seem to have given up, but miss using the assortment of lenses, settings and flash equipment.
Hear hear to Linda K.! I won't give up my rotary phones (yes, plural) or dial tone until the service is no longer offered. I work as a tech in the data communications division of a large telecommunications company, and I can't express how opposed I am to VoIP (making telephone calls over the Internet). Talk about putting all of your communications eggs in one basket, not to mention re-inventing the wheel! Implementing VoIP is tricky, it's still less reliable than traditional land lines, (although in fairness to Cisco, it is getting better) and if you loose power, you're screwed! Contrast that with land lines: Summer storms roll through, power is out. Even with battery back up, if the power is out for longer than 4 hours (max back-up time for most UPS systems), no power, no computer, no internet; but you can still pick up the phone on a land line and have dial tone.
My French press coffee maker, which causes me to think of the adage, "It's not the destination that's important, it's the journey." A great perspective to be reminded of at the start of each day... Besides, the coffee tastes better!
I still use my IBM Selectric II typewriter every day. It was purchased used just before I started this job in 1984. A few years ago I stocked up on ribbons and correct tapes. I type over 80 wpm and it is faster than a keyboard, though mostly used for file labels. When the computers are down, I can get my memos out! I supposed the day after I retire, the old blue machine will be hauled off to the recycle center.
Linda Benzinger
Minneapolis
My dial telephone: it's the only one that sounds like I should pick it up when it makes noise, and isn't pulled off the table every time the cord gets stretched. I've had it repaired twice.
And my boom box: it's where I listen to the radio, so when I want to record, it's possible at the press of 2 buttons and ready to replay nearly instantaneously on the same machine. I know how to make it work.
The most convenient device to listen to MPR everywhere, anytime: my trusty Sony over-the-head radio. In contrast to today's offerings of portable MP3 players, iPods, and such it does have a big advantage, that of being always at right place whatever you do: dig in the garden, cook in the kitchen, clean the garage, wash your teeth. It always stays fixed at the most protected place -- on your head. Need no belt-clips, no arm bands, no clumsy wires creeping along your arms to your ears. Ah, these wires always find the way to get hooked and yank your little ear-buds away! Not with this radio. It stays where it should stay and will stay there unless you are in danger of harming your own head as well. It is shame that this kind of radios are nowhere to buy these days.
Jarek [pronc.: Yareq] , Eden Prairie, MN
My turntable. Say what you will about records, but in 50 years they will still play the same as they do now. Who knows what kind of newfangled brain implant the kids will be using by then to "listen" to music.
My handguns.
Firearms are, for the most part, simple devices. Although some have gone "high tech" in the past thirty years, most of the actual industrial designs are easily one hundred years old or more.
Thank you, John Moses Browning.
My radio. I have had an am/fm clock radio since 1970 and i still use one 39 years later. This is about as low tech as it gets, but is key in my routine.
I use a compass in my car to navigate the general direction that I'm driving. It is not as fancy as a Garmin GPS, but it won't bark the wrong direction while you're driving at 60mph on the highway.
I love my original text messaging system - Morse Code. As a Boy Scout and later Amateur Radio Operator, I have used Morse Code for over 40 years. It's much faster than newer text messaging systems and more accurate than voice messaging.
Now...if I could only figure out a way to interface my Morse Code keyer to my cellphone...
My VCR. I have felt all kinds of pressure to get Tivo or DVR, but I still love to record things on tapes. I don't know what I will do when this one dies though, I probably won't buy a new one, if it is even possible to at that point.
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