I am thinking this week about the future. With the announcement by Apple last week that the IPod; another technical innovation of my longevity will now no longer be updated. Invented by Steve Jobs who died aged 56 of pancreatic cancer.
He undoubtedly changed the world we live in and is the reason, possibly that we all rely on our smartphones so much? He made an unprecedented impact on the world's consumer electronics markets with a string of successful products which frankly took my breath away - with not only the iPod, iPhone and iPad, but, also created 'Apple' and those products, which came dominate their rivals. He redefined large areas of three entire industries: music, mobile telephony and personal computing. iTunes provided a simple way for users to buy digital content where previously they would have pirated it and through his animation studio, Pixar, you had the essence of the Toy Story film franchise from 1995. So he also helped change the movie industry.
I wonder what you have in your house which is no longer useful?
Do you remember all those things you bought many times over and the money you spent on them?
45 rpm and 33 rpm vinyl records, cassettes, 8 track, Compact Disks, Mini Disks, LaserDisk, not to mention the platforms they had to be played on.
All these things are now a sign to me, that these are relics. Certainly relics of my immediate past. It makes me feel my age now. But I still hang on to them-Why?
I still have records and CDs even mini disks in my house. I also have an iPhone with streamed music along with Alexa and Amazon Prime. Are these the the signs of a new age of technologies.
Streaming is the current ways of being entertained. Music platforms like Spotify and others, where you can ask for any song to be played and it obeys your every command. If you can’t remember a song or who sings what’s playing on the TV show you, get out Shazam app or say "OK google"
What’s next I wonder?
Am I to see more technological innovations before I shuffle off into blank disk space?
I am on series 4 of Supernatural, there are over 20 episodes in each series. Its streaming on Amazon Prime. I remember watching this on Channel 4 or 5. I note the technology within such old tv programmes; especially the phones that they use in the early series, like flip phones and pop up facia phones that for me make it look really aged.
Sam played by Jared Padalecki is now 39 years and Dean, his brother, the even better looking one, is now 44. There are fifteen series on this platform and I will be watching and reminiscing on how they age and how technology changes through the stories.
What would you watch again to see relics from your bygone age?
If you want to experience greater nostalgia you could go over to Brit Box for around eight pounds month - I used to spend that on one album and I would bet that some of my readers spent less within their longevity timescale? This platform offers some of the old comedies and dramas like Bergerac, Midsomer Murders but interestingly no Eddie Shoestring.
I used to love that programme set in Bristol about a radio detective it may come on one day, I suppose but why do we watch these things?
I was saddened by the passing of Dennis, 'hum the theme tune, sing the theme tune', Waterman, last week. Seventy four years old and lung cancer took him away from us. So I decided to watch something with him in it resulting in New Tricks.
Does anyone else do this when one of their hero’s from a bygone age disappears. Did you cry when Elvis Presley or David Bowie, David Cassidy or River Phoenix passed away. Did you play their legacy music or watch the films or shows that they gave you some fun about at sometime in your life? A time when, with only four or five channels, you stayed indoors to catch the next episode. Now you can just watch and watch and wait and watch anything on demand.
What do we, us mere mortals though leave behind. Photographs of memories, songs you liked, films that made you cry. Your legacy of what you built in love and respect.
POEM
What a load of old rubbish?
"What you hanging on to those for?
What a load of old rubbish"
"Its my life and memories, I'll use them one day"
"What a load of old rubbish"
Your hoarding and keeping a lot and its true
You wake up and look whats surrounding you
Just a load of old rubbish?
"Why do you want a record player today?
That's just a load of old rubbish"
"I want to see if my Vinyl will play"
"Oh, what a load of old rubbish"
I've had LPs and EPs and MDs and Things
But Alexa can play, 'Paul McCartney and Wings'
Should I get rid of my load of old rubbish?
"You've still got that IPOD, why? - its just an old thing to play
Get rid of that load of old rubbish"
Oh no, its an invention which made your today - an invention that once took my life breath away...
....and so I'll keep this load of old rubbish
Were YOU once part of an age, which brought in such toys?
Did you have a walkman with earphones and got lost in your noise?
(Go, tell them to 'get off your back' and 'get on with their life')
Coz, one day, they'll have a load of old rubbish!