DO YOU REMEMBER the commercial back in the 1980’s for Memorex tapes in which a tape recording of her voice on a Memorex tape shattered a glass exactly as what happened when she hit that same high note live. Memorex was always my favorite brand of cassette tape as was BASF. The other night I discovered a whole drawer full of those tapes. Have no way of listening to these cassettes (I can oly imagine what must be on some of them) but it was exciting seeing them again.
Just a drawer below that one I discovered a whole bunch of 45’s (singles as they were called back then) along with the little round disk that was needed to keep the record on the turntable. I could not believe all these recording artists who had “hits” back then and are now all but forgotten except by a few people like me who still have 45’s along with full record albums that also need a turntable in order to be listened to. So much great music interspersed with poetry.
Before some of you start cringing thinking that this article is going to be nothing more than yet another trip down memory lane or do you remember this or that or so and so. As I go along you will see I am going to touch on a couple of more “relevant” topics while hoping to successfully “connect the dots” at the end so that the first two paragraphs make sense in the whole scheme of things.
So here you are lo these may years later adapting to all of this wonderful technology we have now where almost anything is possible. Practically the whole world is at your fingertips. Just about any information you need is easily found within seconds. Talking to people across the globe from while being able to see them talking to you while they see you talking to them. Incredible!
Sadly though there have been critical losses as a result of this technology such as people becoming more distant from each other since they can no longer talk to each other face to face. Interpersonal relationships have suffered. Parents can no longer properly teach their children as they are “tuned out” by IPODS, IPADS and alike.
Messages along with their meaning are often misunderstood since the most popular vehicle used is e-mail (I am guilty as anybody of this), Text Messaging (guilty of this one too), and lastly via PM (guilty yet again) where words are replaced by symbols or single letters. Unlike a phone call where you can the tone of voice words are spoken in or clarify with the person you are speaking with what they mean the above methods (slightly less with e-mail) have led to more hurt feelings or arguments that many of us can recall prior to all of this technology.
The ability to form cohesive sentences while communicating them in person to another human being has become a daunting task. If you have trouble communicating orally with your spouse, your children friends, relatives and anybody else how can you reasonably expect to perform while on a face to face job interview?
Going back to the first paragraph in this article about cassette tapes one if advantages of them was that you were able to pause it rewind, etc. So if you thought you heard something that did not sound right you could listen to it several times over. The voice of the person speaking or of the singer left little to doubt. The same cannot be said for an IM or PM.
I am no way suggesting this new way we have of communicating is bad. We can now exchange thoughts faster than any of us could ever imagine with the added ability to send messages to several people at the same time irrespect to where they are and have them be received with breathtaking speed.
What I am suggesting is that the tapes, records and alike there was a simplicity to them that never threatened communication. Classrooms was a room where a teacher or professor imparted knowledge while standing in front of his students. A student could ask his teacher a question with the teacher being able to ask their student(s) a question. If the answer was not understood the question or the answer was repeated.
Oh about the records not only do I have a drawer full of them I also have rows of albums on the bottom of my closet. Some of these albums have covers on them with brilliant artistry or images that catch you eye. Some of them are probably scratched but what the heck. If the needle got stuck in one place you could always gently lift up the toner arm (is that was what it was called) to gently nudge it forward. Yeah I do miss records!
