Low-Tech

PJ Rey tries to get to the heart of hipsters and their obsession with low-tech media and devices:

the fetishization of low-tech is about the illusion of agency; it provides affirmation for the hipster whose identity is defined by the post-Modern imperative to be an individual, to be unique.

While agree that I have seen many hipsters who try to identify themselves with ‘old school’, analogue gadgets, I also know people my age (35) and older who love and rediscover old technology from their childhood. It’s not just hipsters who want more than the (fake) skeuomophic interface elements in iPad apps (and conversely, the flat, stoic, hard-edged tiles in Windows 8). Antique shops are not the sole domain of hipsters.

I think many of us long for real things, with real moving parts and real buttons. Our brain and our nerves might be an electrical network of neurons, but our senses are analogue.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *