Thanks to technology, many of my hobbies and pleasant past times are obsolete. For example, I have a rubber stamps collection, which I used to decorate my letters and personalized stationary. I can not remember the last time I wrote a letter. E-mail is certainly more quick and I don’t have to spend $ on a stamp.
So the rubber stamps stay in a drawer. They are lodged next to recipe clippings. I spent a lot of time reading years of “Gourmet” and “Bon Apetit” magazines, ripping out the recipes I thought promising. My vast collection of cookbooks also sit on the shelves. The internet makes it easier and faster to find a recipe than to go through my accordian file of clippings or rummage through books.
Once upon a time I enjoyed making ‘mix tapes” – there’s a blast from the past! – taking pride in my editing skills. Thanks to Mr. Forbes and his marvelous machines I create playlists with continual editing. I don’t think they make cassette tapes any more, do they?
I am one of the last card carrying members of the Clerisy*. Fewer and fewer people read anymore.. I dread the inevitable day when some youngster wonders what I am looking at, having not seen a paper book before.
Other past times of mine, such as memorizing poems and fact lists (the States, the Capitols, the Presidents) are rather useless when a few taps on the iphone brings up this information.
I suppose it is a matter of time when I become obsolete. “Medicine” is one of the few professions left where aging is an asset, but this is changing. I wait for my pink slip announcing I am being replaced by a cheaper nurse practioner or (lord save us!) a psychologist. I take comfort in the knowledge they haven’t yet found a good way to turn Psychiatry into a computer self-diagnosis and treatment programme. I hope by then I will have retired, when I will attend to all those recipe clippings
* Clerisy < People who read; the other side of “Writers” or “People of Letters”.
26 comments
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October 10, 2012 at 1:31 AM
victorinvermont
Your ending made me think of that show on Showtime “Web Therapy” where therapy is done online over videochat. I googled to see if there are online therapists and for some reason I was surprised to see that there are.
Obsolete can’t be a good feeling. This was kind of sad to read.
I’m always reminded of Alvin Toffler when I read or write about technology progressing for better or worse. I remember reading Future Shock and The Third Wave and being scared. And then realizing it was happening, much like he had predicted. How once technology starts, it snowballs, moving faster and faster and becoming more and more specific. Of course, Toffler was a little out there; we haven’t grown gills yet so we can breathe underwater, but many of his other predictions have already happened.
I still send hand written thank you cards. I know I can easily send an email instead, but I prefer to snail-mail this one thing. I think it’s nicer.
October 10, 2012 at 6:36 AM
Urspo
Hand written thank you notes are one of the ten’certainsigns’ I am dealing with a GENTLEMAN! Good for you! Don’t give that up, ever!
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October 10, 2012 at 2:38 AM
anne marie in philly
nope, no cassettes being made; I do have many of these. and I read only real paper books, TYVM. I knit sweaters instead of buying them. I still have a landline telephone in my house. sometimes newer is NOT better.
October 10, 2012 at 6:34 AM
Urspo
In general I am suspicious of techno ‘advances’ and would be quite content to go back to dixie cups tied together with string.
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October 10, 2012 at 3:15 AM
Rick
I’m afraid we are in the same boat; I have a vast aray of stamps myself: various styles of my address, city scapes of Houston, paw prints, and Labrador profiles. Cassette tapes? Are you kidding? Cd’s are just as bad.
I suppose you were too smart to fall for the floppy disc? I have 100′s of them.
As far as profession, advertising has been hit by technology, which I have been slow to adapt, and the economy. Thank goodness for election years.
October 10, 2012 at 3:45 AM
Ron
Ah yes, my recipe clippings. I have tons of them, all now obsolete. I too go to the Internet when looking for that recipe for sour cream raisin pie. I also have tons of cassettes. However, you failed to mention one area. What about those VHS “self-entertainment” tapes of which I paid $59 each for back in the 80′s and 90′s. I download the “good-stuff” now. So much easier than slipping the VHS tape into my ancient VHS machine (remember those?)
October 10, 2012 at 5:14 AM
anne marie in philly
sour cream raisin pie – so wisconsin and so damn good!
I have 2 VHS machines at home; and yeah, it’s SO much easier to download “beary good fun – no rubbish” from the internet!
WHAT? (innocent look)
October 10, 2012 at 3:52 AM
Cameron
Don’t blame technology on your laziness in not using your rubber stamps to write letters!
I use mine almost every day. If you can afford to buy expensive whiskey, you certainly can afford to buy stamps for snail-mail letters.
I encourage you to revive writing letters, and using your stamps. It is a rewarding hobby; everyone LOVES receiving handwritten letters.
Don’t you, Spo Readers???
If you’ve decided not to use your rubber stamps again, please send them to ME. I will use them, and they will have a good home.
October 10, 2012 at 5:16 AM
anne marie in philly
HELLZ YEAH! I would cherish a hand-written note from the good doctor!
October 10, 2012 at 6:33 AM
Urspo
Indeed ! My real excuses is: the time it takes to write a letter, my lack of practice at good enough penmanship (sloppy from misuse), impatience at how ‘slow it goes now” (I am a whiz at typing -as fast as my thoughts), AND – I am cheap! Getting stamps and using them…… Really, though, I should write some letters, but to whom? Many people cringe when they get letters, feeling they are now obliged to ‘return one’. So I was intimadated to write as they were evoking anxitey, not pleasure, at their reception.
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October 10, 2012 at 7:03 AM
Cameron
Write to your blog readers! I’m sure they’d love to get an honest-to-goodness SPO LETTER. Some of them may even write back.
You could do a post on starting a snail-mail correspondence group.
A letter doesn’t have to be a big, elaborate production, or more than a page or two if you don’t want to be too verbose, or take too much time. I know you’re itching to use your rubber stamps again.
If you don’t wish to hand write, get a manual typewriter! I can recommend a place in Phoenix that sells/repairs them.
This could be a whole new wonderful thing for you!
October 10, 2012 at 5:35 AM
Laurent
Well Gourmet Magazine went out of business in Nov 2009 and now can be found on line and on FB. Though their recipes were too complicated. As for reading well most of society does not read anymore, we prefer to be excited continuously and TV is there for that. The one thing I find strange here is your prejudice against Psychologist, I don’t understand is it not similar too Psychiatry? In Canada I believe most are Psychologist it is rare to hear someone going to a Psychiatrist. In many cases you will be sent to see a social worker or a counsellor for case of depression and suicidal thoughts.
October 10, 2012 at 6:30 AM
Urspo
It is a sore subject – the notion a PHD can replace a physician. This is not an issue in surgery, ENT or other specialities. I for one wouldn’t want someone without medical training to manage my medication. It is a topic of great emotions. I also continually see nurse practioners boasting they are just as good as a physician, yet when things get difficult for them, they quickly demur to ‘oh you should see a doctor’.
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October 13, 2012 at 2:25 PM
Laurent
You see I did not know that. I think that in the popular mind if you say Psychiatrist people in general equate that with crazy person while psychologist is more gentle like everyday problems, not crazy just depressed.
October 10, 2012 at 6:16 AM
Ray
I still love writting letter and doing all of that stuff with it. I have several rubber stamps I use. Just like with my cards I send out for the hoidays. I use different stamps for those as well. Allot o f people have quit writting letter and I thin it is a shame. I would rather get a letter in the USPS than a email. It really lets me know someoone is thinking of me. but hey I do it to others, send out cards, letters, ect.
Hugs
Ray
October 10, 2012 at 6:27 AM
Urspo
Yes, I should get out my stationary and rubber stamps and write some letters!
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October 11, 2012 at 5:30 AM
Ray
Yep when you get a letter or a card in the USPS, it really make you feel good.
October 10, 2012 at 8:09 AM
Erik Rubright
There’s these scanning devices you can purchase to digitally scan in all those recipes that you clipped out, so you can access them on your computer.
October 10, 2012 at 8:09 AM
Shawn
Nothing is better than a hand written lett or even a quick note.
I think you succesfully just got rid of any psychologists reading your blog!
October 10, 2012 at 8:20 AM
Urspo
Not all psychologists though agree or want to ‘prescribing medications’ – believe me it is quite a challenge, a headache and requires all my medical education to keep on it. And – it is the 2nd main reason for psychiatrists to be sued – medication matters. Most PHDs want no part of this messy matter. Also, they too wouldstart tobemoan how their profession has gone from ‘listening to people’ to being a script mill.
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October 10, 2012 at 8:20 AM
truthspew
I still read a hell of a lot. That is only because I have the Kindle app on my PC and phone. But you’re right – I have a lot of reference apps on my phone for electronics, food, amateur radio, etc. No need to keep it the old noggin anymore.
And yes the only posted things I send are FCC applications and updates, and my monthly rent since my landlord is in the dark ages with regard to smart phones and payment apps.
But email – my phone gets my Gmail stuff. Plus I have business and personal accounts setup in Thunderbird.
October 10, 2012 at 8:52 AM
Raven~
May I chime in here? I confess that I have one dear friend who has the epistolary gene; her letters read like the best of early 20th century prose. I treasure her letters, but could I find a particular paragraph, a particularly lovey description, or her justly famous lemon-curd recipe? Not on your tin-type. There’s a reason that digitizing is so popular: storage, and search retrieval.
Personally, I would treasure a letter from you, replete with rubber stamps and sealing wax. But, if you send my Tarot reading by surface-mail, and should I find that I want to keep it for future reference, I’ll either frame it hang on the wall, or I’ll scan it …
We have too many pieces of paper lying about in shifting heaps
But then, I must confess that I am an electronic resources cataloger and database manager
October 10, 2012 at 8:54 AM
Greg
Proud to be a member of the clerisy — both traditional books and ebooks (though I prefer traditional. Nothing like holding a solid book in your hands, anticipating the turn of the page to see what the characters are up to.)
October 10, 2012 at 8:55 AM
Jay
I just purchased a Kindle and I can get books on there in a matter of minutes. Not sure it is better that paper but it is fast and easy to read and I do not have to search for it on the shelves of the bookstore.
Your post also made me think of Round Robin letters. Here is a link to an article about one that has been going for 58 years. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20119361,00.html
Of course you can do the same thing with blogs, and computers but I think the idea of getting a large envelope every once in awhile and keeping up on people that way would still appeal to many,
October 10, 2012 at 5:42 PM
Tony D
i will NEVER give up my bookshelves, OR the books on them. i have five books on my nightstand and three at work to chose from when i take my lunch. it would be easier to have all that on a kindle, but i am doing what i know and what i like! i suppose that is the reason some people refuse to give up their vinyl albums. and, as a mft working toward my license, i can assure you that i have NO desire to prescribe medicine. not that it would be an option for me, as i also have no desire to get a PhD in my field! i prefer being “debt-free” to being degree laden!
October 11, 2012 at 10:29 AM
Jason
Oh rubber stamps huh, nice, I like that idea. Mix tapes, yay, I remember doing such things. Although at the time I had a collection of the cartridge type cassette tapes, the big old ones, thinking they’d be around forever, but well, just like the rest of my plans and dreams, they’re all obsolete now. However I wish I’d kept all those Dinky toy cars I had as a nipper, worth a fortune they are now!