Howdy from Raleigh,

This piece is dedicated to the folks who can navigate their geographies without a GPS.

We (the section of the population who owned an iPhone before they began driving) honor and respect you.

Bright LEDs replaced flickering flames.

I was at an Odesza concert in Charlotte over the weekend.

During one of their songs, the artists asked everyone in the crowd to turn their flashlights on.

Folks reached into their pockets, grabbed their phones, and swiped up on their flashlight app. Slowly, then all at once, the dark amphitheater lit up like the night sky.

The bright blue light stood in stark contrast from the warm, orange light that used to flood concert halls.

Lighters, not phones, previously served as our tool of collective action at concerts.

Now, in place of a primitive instrument, we use a compact computer more powerful than what got us to the moon to shine light at concerts.

This has major implications. I witnessed them first-hand at the Odesza show.

When people began to turn off their flashlights, they didn’t put their phones back in their pockets. In fact, the three girls next to me began to check what they had missed. One girl even began scrolling instagram.

Odesza - an electronic artist that performs with a full drum line, brass band, and pyrotechnics team - could not keep the attention of concertgoers once they had touched their phones.

The change from the lighter to the flashlight is indicative of a major shift in our psychologies.

This got me thinking, what are the ways in which we can externally see change that has such a major impact on us internally?

Change in the 21st Century

• Lighters → Flashlights: we now have ridiculously powerful, addictive tools of communication and creativity at our disposal at all times.

• Physical Maps → GPS: no one actually knows how to get around anymore. Most of us just plug in an address and follow directions.

• Records/Cassettes → Streaming: no more waiting in anticipation to listen to that new artist when you can stream an album the second it is released.

• Typewriters → Computers: we type our notes to one another - including this one right here - with a keyboard and send it digitally.

• Physical Books → E-books: our libraries used to take up entire rooms. Now, they can be stored on a single tablet.

• Film Cameras → Digital Cameras: there are less constraints on snapping a photo. Now, you can take as many as you want (so long as you’re willing to pay for cloud storage).

• Encyclopedias → Search Engines: good luck getting away with dropping an obscure piece of knowledge at a dinner party without it getting fact-checked.

• Landline → Cell Phones: despite big telecom constantly trying to bundle me into one, I have never had my own personal landline (and I likely never will).

The result? Convenience at the expense of craft.

Convenience at the expense of craft.

I previously wrote about the Myth of Progress, the basic premise that progress is not linear. Just because time goes on and tech advances does not mean that we’re actually moving forward.

In fact, if you refer back to the bullet points above, there are emerging markets for the former thing over the current thing.

Used record and book stores are all of the rage because love the experience of finding a diamond in the rough.

Processing film takes time. You have to work for the image to turn out.

There is an increasing market for used typewriters because folks want to write without distraction. (I know because I am a prospective buyer in said market.)

People don’t always want things to be easy. Easy eliminates the process that people have a deep affection for. It erodes at turning our hobbies into a craft.

And folks want to be tied to a craft. Why? Because it is the exact opposite of optimization all of the time.

What I’m paying attention to:

Playoff baseball is near. I can feel it in the air.

Thanks for reading

What other ways can we visually see societal change?

Reply and let me know,

Josh

Want more Build content? Check out the links below

Previous Newsletters // Essays // Twitter // LinkedIn