I’ve been shopping for a digital audio recorder. I have very little need for such a contraption, but I am compelled to acquire one by what I call “gadget lust.” I like to think that it is a desire to see and hold a device that is skillfully designed and built. There are other factors; I’ve always enjoyed recorders. One of the earliest Christmas presents I remember was a Fisher-Price cassette recorder. Perhaps the next Christmas I got a bigger, more grown-up version (stereo!).
When I was a missionary – to celebrate my half-way mark – I got a little micro-cassette recorder. I think I had one back home before I left, but I didn’t bring it for some reason. At any rate, I’m very glad that I did, because I’ve loved listening to the recordings I made, almost more than I’ve enjoyed looking at the photos.
Imagine, instead, that I had a digital voice recorder while I was playing RISK with my fellow missionaries. The “result” would be the same – an audio recording of some missionaries playing a board game and goofing around. But how would I keep track of that recording - on a computer? I would just hope that the recordings didn’t get lost somewhere along the way!
One point for physical media –you can stick it in a box and store it for a long time. However, the physical recordings are as vulnerable as they are safe. If those original recordings are damaged, they are gone. Digital recordings can be backed up to multiple CDs and stored in several places. CDs are fragile, but no more than magnetic tape.
One point for digital recordings – you can make lossless backup copies.
Imagine, instead, that I had been listening to digital recordings on a computer my whole life. Would looking at the list of files in iTunes and making playlists give me as much satisfaction as holding those tapes and popping them into my recorder? Maybe… Maybe more because I could burn a CD and put it in the car and listen while I drive to work.
Imagine that instead of audio recordings we were talking about written notes. I’ve thought the same thing about notebooks that I think about cassette tapes. I have Microsoft’s OneNote note-taking application on this computer. It gives me organizational options similar (and superior to) physical notebooks.
It can hold things together better than a spiral notebook and I can move things around easier than a loose-leaf binder. However, when I get a new hard-drive I forget to move the old notebooks over and lose that information. And I have to boot up a computer before I can read the notes.
Sounds like a similar argument.