Why We Miss Bad Technology

By: M. Tastardi

Practically speaking, there is almost no reason to listen to a vinyl record anymore. Spotify gives you millions of songs instantly; you don't have to flip anything over, and there is no dust getting in the way of the music. Yet vinyl is everywhere again. And somehow, the little crackles and pops that would technically make the sound “worse” are part of why people like it. 

The same thing is happening with cameras. We have phones that can take ridiculously clear photos, automatically fix the lighting and focus, and let us take the same picture twenty times until we get one we like. And what do we do? Buy old digital cameras that make photos grainy, slightly blurry, and weirdly colored. 

Film makes even less sense. You only get a limited number of photos; you can't check them after taking them, and you must wait for them to be developed. Sometimes you wait all that time just to find out that half of them are terrible. But that's also kind of the point. 
Maybe we have made things so perfect that perfect has become a little boring. There is something different about a photo you couldn't retake fifty times or a record where you can sometimes practically hear the dust sitting on it. They feel less edited and a bit more real. 
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None of this means we're about to give up Spotify or start carrying film cameras everywhere. Convenience is convenient for a reason. But it is interesting that, after spending years trying to get rid of grain, scratches, blur, and waiting, we're now choosing to bring some of them back.