The Deletist

Last Saturday night I was home, as per the new “pandemic” normal. I was missing friends and decided to call one of them. Without a pre-warning message or text to see if she was home, I called. No video, just the phone. I did use WhatsApp to call instead of the phone, but other than that, it felt old fashioned. Part of this is because since the pandemic started, and the advent of available video calling, regular phone calls are rare. Even rarer is to stay on a call more than a couple of minutes. We gabbed for at least 30 minutes before I had to go and do something else.

As I hung up the phone, it reminded me of a time when the phone used to just be for calling people. A time when all you could do on the phone was talk and listen. Phone calls used to be treated as something urgent, or important. Now, every beep, ding, chirp, or buzz from a phone receives the same sort of urgency. We used to wait around for calls before we had answering machines, especially ones we could access remotely. Slowly, then faster, new forms of technology arrived that made it easy to move around while waiting, or maybe not, for that call. Except now, the call can also be an email, message, tweet, post, video call, anything really.

The methods have changed and along with it, so have some of the sentiments. A phone call used to be an event. Or a focused time to connect with someone, especially if that person lived far away. Now, it’s all too easy to be multi-tasking while talking on the phone, only partially invested in any one thing. Video calls, which have become the new de facto “phone call” cause burn out. This is because people now use them so much to work, stay connected, visit others, etc. since the pandemic started.

I do love the ease of video calling. It’s definitely been a salvation during the pandemic and many, many long lockdowns. However, I still appreciate a good, old-fashioned chinwag on the phone with a dear friend, once in a while.

A couple weeks ago, I attended “Seeing the Invisible.” It was an outdoor augmented reality (AR) art event at the botanical gardens near my house. To view the exhibits, I needed a:

special app I downloaded

fully charged phone

strong internet connection

my GPS signal turned on

Armed with my AR toolkit, I followed the map indicated on the app to the exhibits. When I arrived at the exhibit location, my phone received a message “Artwork Established.” Once connected, I scanned the ground to build the AR field. Within seconds, the artwork appeared on my phone in what looked like an empty space.

Signs indicated the exhibit’s location. However, I always knew an exhibit was coming up when I noticed a group of people looking intently at their devices while wandering around somewhat aimlessly. At times, other people walked through my view of the exhibit, which only added another dimension to the artwork.

The exhibits were all different and unique in their own ways. Some were interactive with spaces you could “walk” into and explore. One exhibit shattered apart and the broken pieces started moving. Other exhibits had moving parts and were constantly changing. Some had audio and some didn’t. One exhibit was so large I had to walk back about 50 feet to view the whole thing from my phone.

Here’s one of my favorites with my own embellishment. This particular exhibit was enormous. I could walk around to see it in 3D, plus it had a cool cave to explore.

At the end, I couldn’t decide if I enjoyed it more as an augmented reality event than I would have if I were viewing a tangible, concrete object instead. Then I wondered if I even needed to compare the two. Each type of art offers its own benefits. I really enjoyed the ethereal nature of the AR artwork and the way it blended with, or sometimes enhanced, the background scenery. Yet, at the same time, I would have appreciated being able to sense the weight and presence for some of the artworks.

I’m reading a book published in 1998. In the early part of the book, some characters were fumbling with how to use a VCR. It instantly transported me to my middle-school and high-school years. I have strong memories of watching videos on a VCR in class. The teacher would roll in a giant cart containing a TV, the VCR, and a whole bunch of wires. From our seats, we would watch the teacher fumble to connect the VCR to the TV, plug everything in and hit the buttons in the right order. Usually there would be a few helpful tips from the students such as “press the button with the triangle on it – just one triangle.”

This book is full of old tech references. The VCR, the poor quality video with grainy images, and my favorite, the fax machine. Even that strange, fragile fax paper that curls is part of the book. Incidentally, that fax paper doesn’t last a long time. I know from experience because I used to find it a lot when I was cleaning out old files. What feels even weirder to me is how we used to function without cell phones. The book only references old-school car phones. I also couldn’t help wondering how different the story would be with updated technology. Or if parts of the story couldn’t, or wouldn’t, happen if the characters had smart phones.

I often have this thought thinking about Seinfeld. Even today, Seinfeld references are still valid, though I wonder how many episodes wouldn’t exist because of today’s technology. A few that come to mind are the episodes when:

• Elaine has to save seats in the movie theater
• they all miss the movie because there’s confusion about which theater to go to
• they wait for a table at a busy Chinese restaurant

I’m sure new episodes with modern technology would take their place, but it’s still fun to think about.

Technology advances quickly and we adapt to incorporate it into our lives. My generation was the last to grow up with both analog and digital. It’s fine for me to read older books with outdated tech references. I know what they mean. However, I wonder what that will be like for the newer generations. Will it make these books unreadable for them? Or will they fumble through the books using their smart phones to Google all the outdated tech references?