they could press the button and it would all be gone.
on censorship, rejecting minimalism & technology and the importance of keeping physical things.
What an ominous title, but if you think about it for a second— it really could all be gone. And by ‘it’, I mean the playlists you have saved on your phone, the books on your e-reader, all the photos on your phone, and so much more. One day, if your phone breaks and you cannot get it fixed for whatever reason, what do you really have? With the rise of censorship both online and in real life, I’ve been thinking about what I possess that holds value to who I am as a person.
This all started with a conversation I had with my brother, in which I spoke about wanting to have a way to keep memories alive and possibly have a physical photo album. For my generation, these albums are objects we see as “vintage” or maybe under some “y2k aesthetic” tag on Pinterest. Nowadays, the closest thing we use to this is a photo album on our phones, which is so sad. I don’t have the same pleasure in scrolling through my “baby photos” album on my phone as I do when I go to my grandparent’s house and they give me a box full of pictures. It feels like a lost art really. It makes me wonder what pictures I’ll show my family members in the future. Will it just be some random pictures of what I posted on Instagram one day because I’ve surely deleted pictures on my phone to save space by then? I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have authentic pictures of my life. I have so many now-deleted pictures from moments in my life that I wish I had saved just so I could personally watch myself grow. But I unfortunately can’t do that because I took it all for granted.
Books, music, and movies are also things that I recommend you start collecting physically, each for their own reasons. With music, most of us feel like we can’t live without it, which is valid, but we don’t own any of that music. It’s not yours, meaning labels can just remove them off a platform, and then what? Or even when your music app is glitching, your first response is to freak out. This is why having CDs (we need to stop acting like they’re extinct) and vinyl are so important. I’m not saying buy every single one you see, but have a few albums or songs that you hold dear to your heart. Not only will it sound so much better (source: just trust me), but years down the road, rediscovering your favourite albums like this is such an undefeated experience. I think I started collecting vinyl when I was 15, and it’s so funny seeing how much my taste has changed, it really is a nostalgic experience. I hold my playlists so dear to me, so the thought of them disappearing one day is so scary (I’ve deleted hundreds of them and now my only memory/evidence of what I used to listen to at 15 is my collection of Tyler the Creator records). My next step is to slowly but surely choose my favourites and put them on CDs!
ks and movies are in the same category for me here, and my main reason as to why you need physical copies of them is simple: censorship. We can’t deny it anymore because we’ve seen it with our own eyes with book/movie bans and restrictions. They’re erasing history and art right in front of our eyes and the only way to save ourselves from this is to have your own copy. One of my many goals in life has been to have my own library in my home, and part of it is for this very reason. And just to throw it out there, there’s a reason why governments are banning books and making diverse literature inaccessible. Owning books is your path to freedom at this point.
And it’s true, e-books do exist but at the end of the day I think we forget that they’re also just another piece of technology and in some cases owned by questionable companies. I’d be a hypocrite to sit here and say that I don’t support them — I have one too. Books are expensive these days (especially brand new ones) so they are an easier option, but just like with music, I think having a collection of your favourites already makes such a difference. And with movies, they’re unfortunately following the same path of censorship, and in general, they’re becoming so disposable. We barely go to the movies anymore (which I’ll blame the prices for that) and we’d rather just wait for it to be released on streaming services. I will forever be grateful that my mom bought DVDs because I never had to buy HBO to watch Game of Thrones. As a society, we really just don’t value things anymore because we expect them to be given to us on a silver (digital) platter.
We’re so dependent on our devices for everything, which I understand as I’m literally typing this on my computer while my phone charges next to me. But I think we just need to me more mindful about it. For example, if you want to journal, I promise you don’t need to do it on some fancy new journaling app; a pen and a piece of paper will do the same. To me, there’s such a thin line between relying on the internet, social media, our devices, etc and being intentional with them.
And lastly, something I want to mention is that collecting all of these physical items isn’t just a way of creating memories but it also quite literally represents who you are, and also who you once were. If I didn’t see that one album at the record store that I knew nothing about at 17 years old but still bought it cause it looked “sick” I probably wouldn’t have the music taste that I do today, and that’s an irreplaceable experience to me. I fell into the trap of minimalism, where I thought having things made me look messy, overwhelmed, or like I didn’t know who I was. But it’s the complete opposite. These things quite literally represent who you are, and that’s why I’m so adamant about this topic because I really wish I never stopped expressing myself and my passions.
Maybe this was just me hinting at my frontal lobe developing, and now I’m turning into an auntie but I’m telling you, slowly living in the real world again after being a slave to my phone is life changing.
until next time,
aliya
all my links: https://linktr.ee/aliyatrvd
(cover is hodanyousuf on instagram!)