Dearest readers, here we are still in the holiday shopping season, and I don't think that even serious gusts of snow will stop us from getting what we want for ourselves and others- a lot of these holiday gift items being tech and gadgets. As devices like smartphones and tablets keep pushing the limits of what we can do on the go (and at home without the need to sit at a computer desk), another revolution has us hooked on a habit far worse than indulging in overpriced Starbucks concoctions- streaming everything! Big screen media oriented smartphones have become the ubiquitous tech items through which companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, Netflix, Dropbox, Adobe and others are pushing cloud service apps that sync and stream files, movies and shows, high requirement apps and music. This goes hand in hand with cell phone companies offering bigger and bigger data plans that balloon most people's monthly bills. Now, while this is convenient, it is changing the way we use and share media across our devices in ways that are negative, addictive and can have serious long-term consequences. I would like to go into this in enough detail to get you thinking about these services and finish off by suggesting relying at least partially on more traditional ways of media storage, consumption and sharing.
Streaming music, movies and TV shows through apps like Netflix and Amazon Music is convenient, but a bad way to go. While it is true that most people can use WiFi at home for these services, and that now some Netflix content can be downloaded within the app to your devices, this is still merely a mask for essentially a sub-par service. You pay monthly fees to access the content, you don't own it if you ever stop paying. Streaming Netflix via your data plan is a big no-no in most cases because you'll burn through it quickly, and if your favorite movie or show can't be downloaded within the app, it becomes useless on the go. If you like any sort of obscure, old school or foreign music (if you're in an immigrant or diverse household), chances are no music streaming app will have what you need for a complete listening experience. Also, most music streaming apps combine similar songs into "stations" you can listen to, but when it comes to music outside of North America they do a poor job compiling said stations.
The more classic approach of building your own library and syncing all or parts of it across your devices blows most of the pay to stream approach right out of the water. First of all, while it's not legal, most of the music and video you want to watch across your devices can be found for free online (especially older content), or can be recorded off of cable TV that most of us have anyways. In addition, there are software solutions out there that let you sync music and videos across your devices easily, as well as solutions like Plex and Tonido that let you stream content you already own. Finally, and this one I like the most, Micro SD cards are so good and cheap now that there's no way you can't get a 128GB one and stuff it with frequently updated music and videos that you can then consume offline to your heart's content. Sure, it may take more work on your part, but you get to own and keep your files which is a huge plus, especially over the long term. Speaking of long term, if you want your files to never disappear with the death of your main hard drive in your home computer, make sure you get an external unit and do backups, as well as to put all of your most important documents and family photos (and videos) on a quality USB drive and store it either in a fireproof safe or a safety deposit box (along with having them up in the cloud via Google Drive or another solution if you still want to).
Same goes for other files like documents and photos, but when it comes to photos there's an additional consideration. While the proliferation of photography didn't go at the same pace everywhere in the world, there are many families out there that have photos going back generations. What's more, some of these photos are over 100 years old! Such photos, especially among European families (as a good example), have survived things like two World Wars, civil unrest, changing financial fortunes of families and even emigration from their home countries to other parts of the world. My point is, physical photos have the staying power that we still cannot possibly associate with their modern, digital counterparts. What's more, the ease with which we take and store digital photos has made us careless. More times than not you will hear that someone's hard drive died and they lost years of family photos, or that a laptop got stolen and pictures of someone's newborn child are now gone forever. This, in my opinion, is ridiculous and should not be allowed by people who care about preserving memories for themselves and the future generations. Forgetting to make physical albums of your most important photos is a big mistake; if you're guilty of this, I wholeheartedly suggest you fix it and soon. :)
I have nothing against technology moving forward. What's more, I like my iPhone, occasionally use my iPad to great enjoyment and I have a big data plan (mostly because of my social media content uploading). However, not everything that companies come up with is a real step forward. Therefore, everything they release to the public should be carefully examined by us consumers to determine whether it really benefits us, or just them. ;)
Streaming music, movies and TV shows through apps like Netflix and Amazon Music is convenient, but a bad way to go. While it is true that most people can use WiFi at home for these services, and that now some Netflix content can be downloaded within the app to your devices, this is still merely a mask for essentially a sub-par service. You pay monthly fees to access the content, you don't own it if you ever stop paying. Streaming Netflix via your data plan is a big no-no in most cases because you'll burn through it quickly, and if your favorite movie or show can't be downloaded within the app, it becomes useless on the go. If you like any sort of obscure, old school or foreign music (if you're in an immigrant or diverse household), chances are no music streaming app will have what you need for a complete listening experience. Also, most music streaming apps combine similar songs into "stations" you can listen to, but when it comes to music outside of North America they do a poor job compiling said stations.
The more classic approach of building your own library and syncing all or parts of it across your devices blows most of the pay to stream approach right out of the water. First of all, while it's not legal, most of the music and video you want to watch across your devices can be found for free online (especially older content), or can be recorded off of cable TV that most of us have anyways. In addition, there are software solutions out there that let you sync music and videos across your devices easily, as well as solutions like Plex and Tonido that let you stream content you already own. Finally, and this one I like the most, Micro SD cards are so good and cheap now that there's no way you can't get a 128GB one and stuff it with frequently updated music and videos that you can then consume offline to your heart's content. Sure, it may take more work on your part, but you get to own and keep your files which is a huge plus, especially over the long term. Speaking of long term, if you want your files to never disappear with the death of your main hard drive in your home computer, make sure you get an external unit and do backups, as well as to put all of your most important documents and family photos (and videos) on a quality USB drive and store it either in a fireproof safe or a safety deposit box (along with having them up in the cloud via Google Drive or another solution if you still want to).
Same goes for other files like documents and photos, but when it comes to photos there's an additional consideration. While the proliferation of photography didn't go at the same pace everywhere in the world, there are many families out there that have photos going back generations. What's more, some of these photos are over 100 years old! Such photos, especially among European families (as a good example), have survived things like two World Wars, civil unrest, changing financial fortunes of families and even emigration from their home countries to other parts of the world. My point is, physical photos have the staying power that we still cannot possibly associate with their modern, digital counterparts. What's more, the ease with which we take and store digital photos has made us careless. More times than not you will hear that someone's hard drive died and they lost years of family photos, or that a laptop got stolen and pictures of someone's newborn child are now gone forever. This, in my opinion, is ridiculous and should not be allowed by people who care about preserving memories for themselves and the future generations. Forgetting to make physical albums of your most important photos is a big mistake; if you're guilty of this, I wholeheartedly suggest you fix it and soon. :)
I have nothing against technology moving forward. What's more, I like my iPhone, occasionally use my iPad to great enjoyment and I have a big data plan (mostly because of my social media content uploading). However, not everything that companies come up with is a real step forward. Therefore, everything they release to the public should be carefully examined by us consumers to determine whether it really benefits us, or just them. ;)