THE ANALOG COMEBACK

Much of our time today is spent connected to devices, but the amount of time and physical effort spent in task-handling is shorter which affects our human needs to function.

At the same time, popular nostalgic elements by 80s themed Netflix show: Stranger Things, to recording labels releasing vinyl albums prove that analog has once again penetrated pop culture. On this episode, we dive-in deeper to why that is.

According to Dan Schawbel's best-selling new book, Back to Human, he explains that addiction to mobile devices is rapidly increasing.

"Before smartphones, people spend an average of 18mins a day on computers and other electronic devices. Today, we're up to a whopping 5hrs a day during which we tap our phones an average of 26,000 times"

This addiction affects the way we interact as humans. It also interferes with our actions, feelings, and thoughts.

Thought leader Simon Sineck also says that this interference can even affect how young people cope with stress.

"When young people experience stress, they aren't turning to a person, they're turning to social media. This coping mechanism has made us depressed, isolated and less effective in our lives."

Even though modern tech has taken over our day-to-day activities, there's still this deep connection to analog that we are simply drawn back to. The answer may very well be in our genetic DNA —species that were born as manually operated natives who can think, create, and act independently.

Florian "Doc" Kaps is the key person responsible for reviving Polaroid through Impossible Project. Image from Florian Kaps/Supersense

A VANGUARD OF FILM

We spoke to Florian Kaps —the person responsible for reviving Polaroid film through Impossible Project which is now Polaroid Originals. Kaps now handles Supersense – A unique, all analog concept store and manufactory. It's also the place for One Instant which recently gained fame for re-inventing the discontinued type 100 peel-apart film.

Florian Kaps holding an Instaflex ––a TLR type instant film camera. Image from Florian Kaps/Supersense

Kaps is a key advocate of the analog process. From Ted Talks, he explains that humans were born with five senses: Hearing, Touch, Smell, Taste and Sight. With digital (looking through a glass screen and pixels), only two are used —Sight and Hearing —this is problematic because humans were born to utilize all five senses.

As a result, humans crave for something authentic that their five senses can experience collectively —the main point of Analog resurgence.

I believe that we're at a point where we discover how the side effects of digital become more and more pervasive for all of us, and that we learn to re-appreciate the analog. That's why technologies and practices that have been declared dead in the digital euphoria and continue to exist in obscurity are currently celebrating their comeback. 

Kaps says that not everything about digital is bad and it should continue to be a tool that helps solve humanity's greatest problems.

Digital must ultimately become a tool to help people make this world a better place, to solve the existentially threatening problems of humanity. But not everything has to be digital, not everything needs a digital twin.

Kaps is concerned that through technology, we might lose sight of our own collective and independent capabilities as humans.

Reality has no reset button. What is mercilessly lacking is respect for what is and what we actually are. Where we come from and where we should go together. I'm dreaming of all of us re-discovering the will to build the future on what we have worked for so hard.

McKinsey Global —an Institute that has been conducting an ongoing research program on automation technologies and their potential effects found that half of today's activities could be automated by 2055.

Modern tech with artificial Intelligence.

Automation and Artificial Intelligence have pumped-up human productivity more than it was centuries ago at the cost of replacing tasks, and even eliminating full time work from human economy.

What is our purpose? We believe it is for our human instinct to thrive, think and move by our own choice —to do things uniquely in our own way.

So why do humans crave for Analog even if we're now living in the digital age?

Humans have come to realize that while we can do it ourselves, we’ve chosen computers to do it for us. We were born as an independent species.

We are now experiencing its side effects much so that we look for an authentic connection between ourselves and the environment we live in. Living in the digital world created a mechanism that has made us lonely, isolated, less creative, and disconnected with our own lives.

The question that we should be asking is:

Are we ready to become less of a human and more of a machine?

Stay tuned for next our story!

#SavingFilm#SavingFilm is an ongoing blog series by Born in Film.

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