DAD TALK: Luddite Family Values

I’m no techno-Luddite. The laptop complements the desktop, and I was a pig in slop back in ’86 when my college newspaper became the first in school history to ditch paper for bits and bytes.

I Facebook, therefore I am. I Tweet, I blog, and all that jazz.

But I have a ways to go.

Today, I’m almost self-conscious when public-texting on an idiot phone instead of a sexy smart one. I sense your glances in between your finger sweeps.

Dude, my nephew watches movies, reads the paper, shoots videos, watches YouTube clips and listens to music on his phone. He'd rather lose an arm than his 4GB.

But have you noticed a Luddite-like comeback lately? Some anecdotal evidence:

• Something was lost in translation in the switch from analog to digital music, which makes record players cool again. My 19-year-old just last week wanted to play records on her old man’s record player after her hip boyfriend (he digs "Seinfeld" at age 22) gave cachet to turntables.
• My wife dusted off the 35mm camera since my 16-year-old needs it for photo class. Serious photogs still need them, no matter the age. Negatives, contact sheets, etc. It's a foundation.

The other day, said wife made an offhand comment that momentarily made me look away from the computer. (LOL – I have dreams of cops busting down my door: “Step away from the mouse. We know you’re in there.”) While cleaning the 35mm, she wistfully said she sometimes wishes we still took pictures of the girls with film.

“Where are all the pictures of the kids?” she asked. I told her they were on the memory card. On the desktop. On backup CD-RWs, silly.

But I saw her point. Seems weird now, but there was a giddy high about trucking off to the drugstore to unravel the masterpieces we’d taken of the kids. We’d gather ’round as a family to check out the pictures in the car before driving home. Sometimes, my wife would make us wait until we got home. It was even better that way.

I know we can print digital pictures, but it never seems to happen. Twenty-four images used to be enough, but now we take two dozen for one pose. Gotta get it right. Funny, but even being able to see a picture immediately after it’s taken doesn’t seem to help.

Times change. We adapt. But the film pictures always seemed to be just fine.