297. Balancing a Digital Future With Human Connections and Experiences feat. David Sax

The future is (not entirely) digital - The notion that digital technology will overtake every existing aspect of our lives is an oversimplified assumption.

The pandemic-induced revelations, alongside the growing affinity of a younger generation raised in a digital era towards analog media like vinyl records or books, provide compelling evidence to the intrinsic human longing for experiences that transcend the purely digital domain.

David Sax is a Canadian journalist, award-winning writer for publications such as New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, Bloomberg Business Week, and The New York Times, a keynote speaker, and the author of several books. His latest work, The Future Is Analog: How to Create a More Human World, examines why our future is not inevitably digital and how to reject the downsides of digital technology without rejecting change.

David and Greg talk about the need in a tech-obsessed society to find the right balance between embracing digital advancements that can genuinely enhance certain parts of our lives and the grand human experiences like everyday social interactions, building authentic connections, and experiential education that cannot be replicated by digital technology.

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

The value of the analog experience isn't diminished

41:55: The world is everything. And I think we're sort of losing sight of that, and I think we still continually have the risk of losing sight of it because we can get everything in one place, because the information's so much easier and requires so much less effort in this way. But the value of that greater experience—the analog experience, this more human experience—isn't diminished simply because you don't have to step outside. 

What is the core of analog?

16:19: We lose sight of the fact that the world is analog. The world is not digital. The planet that we're currently on, depending on where you are, is this physical, tactile thing that's the core of what analog is. And the computers, the ones and zeros, play a big role in certain parts of it.

Who's driving the growth and interest in all things analog?

18:12: I think generational generalization is this great lazy misstep that we always make around technology. [18:34] You know who's driving the growth and interest in all things analog. It's younger people—people who've grown up with this technology, right? Whether you look at the sales and vinyl records, whether you look at the pinball resurgence, whether you look at whatever it is, book sales, you know, all this sort of stuff, it's not people of my generation or your generation. It's those younger than us.

On consuming technology wisely

25:41: Plunging forward into the newest technology because it's possible and reorienting our lives around it because that's something that seems attractive or maybe there's an economic advantage or something that someone can sell is not something that we should do lightly.

Show Links:Recommended Resources:

• The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly

Guest Profile:

• Speaker Profile on The Lavin Agency
• David Sax Website
• David Sax on Twitter
• David Sax on LinkedIn

His Work:

• The Future Is Analog: How to Create a More Human World
• The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter
• Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen
• The Tastemakers: Why We're Crazy for Cupcakes but Fed Up with Fondue
• The Soul of an Entrepreneur: Work and Life Beyond the Startup Myth
• Articles on The New Yorker