There is no question the internet has been great for many things. But I would argue that there are many many many more reasons to hate it, many of which I don’t even miss until I see life through my kids’ eyes.
One of my most indelible memories is of waiting until my sister was on a date with her creepy boyfriend then sneaking into her room to look at her albums. The Who; Crosby Stills and Nash, The Almond Brothers, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell — it was mysterious and inexplicably cool even when I wasn’t convinced I actually liked the music (I had horrific taste in music as a kid, though I’ll defend my favorite songs until I’m hoarse). The album covers struck me, a suburban kid, as rebellious in a way I didn’t understand but wanted desperately to be; the liner notes were secret missives.
When I got my own turntable, I would splay the records around my room, grab them at random, listen to one while I read the lyrics and committed them to memory, try to understand the philosophy of the occasional mission statement. I studied the photographs — both the cover and the pictures inside, looking for a clue to…something. Whatever it was I searched for, I’m not sure if I found it but I did find other things: dreaminess, stimulation, creativity. Music I never would have heard today because I wouldn’t have had the patience. Given the choice of staying where I was or making my way over to the turntable to skip past the “dull” songs, I chose physical inertia. And often I found that those “dull” songs were pretty good. A few became favorites.
Okay, so my teenagers have their phones with pretty much any song available to them instantly through Spotify. Is that a good thing? Yes and no. The access is great (as are the options, with more and more artists able to produce music), but lost is the artistry of the album. An even worse loss is the visual stimulation, which I am fairly sure both kids would appreciate but which, like so many of the holes the internet has carved out in our lives, they don’t miss because they never had it.
Kate Staples 