My Fear of Digitizing

    One of the quickest ways to reduce the amount of items in your house is to start digitizing everything you can. I have not done this. I see that it would indeed be helpful, but something about it seems...wrong? Not for other people, I mean if you're comfortable with it, then I think it's cool. But for me, I have too many issues with the idea of digitizing.

    Firstly, let me just briefly outline my main problem. Having access to digitized media means using electricity. I'm not so much of an environmentalist that I don't use electricity, but I am a little bit of a doomer and I do believe that there is probably a time coming  when we might not be able to count on a never-ending supply of electricity. If you have solar panels, then your problems (at least that one!) are solved. Solar panels aren't inexpensive, though, and if you live in an area that doesn't allow them or you rent, you basically would be completely reliant on the electrical grid for your digitized media. Which, seriously, if things do go that way, might be the last thing you are worried about - but maybe not.

    So, this electrical grid problem is the basis of all my worries about digitizing. I don't have any problem digitizing audio, because if the electricity goes out, you wouldn't have any way to listen whether it was on a cd or ipod. That would be it, once the batteries wore out. Of course, as a side note, my husband does NOT believe in digitizing his cds or... his tapes, so we still have plenty of them around even though I've gotten rid of most of mine.

    No, what really scares me is digitizing the stuff that you can still use and enjoy in an electrical blackout. Like books. Or photographs. I always thought I would be dead set against e-readers because I'm a bibliophile who really, really loves the smell, texture, and heft of a good book. Then my sister got a Kindle and raved about it. I have reconsidered my position on e-readers, but not for the books I really love. I wouldn't mind having any number of books on an e-reader and I see great value in it in saving space in your house, but not for books I feel I couldn't do without if I wasn't ever able to access anything ever again. And, well, that is a mighty lot of books.

    Also, photographs. I don't consider myself particularly sentimental, but if I digitized all my photographs and something happened and I wasn't able to look through them again I might shed a few tears. I'm not even much of a crier, but losing baby pictures would be terrible.

     I realize that a lot of people have no fear of an electrical blackout. Most people haven't considered the possibility. But the environmental and self-sufficient crowd has been thinking these might come along for awhile now. Despite me wanting to get rid of as much as possible, I won't even entertain the idea of getting rid of the possessions that enrich my life more than their absence (minimalism) would. Especially if it was forever. I will totally need that book on foraging in the wilderness if all hell breaks loose.

    How do you feel about digitizing everything? Comfortable? Uncomfortable? Running, screaming into the hills?

Comments

[Preeti @ Heart and Mind]

I like digitizing a few things but always have hard copy, printed copies of things, just in case. Our hard drive have crashed twice before and it was not easy getting everything back.

[TheSimplePoppy]

I have digitized stuff that isn't important to me but that we need to keep. We've had a couple of crashes to, which also makes me wary of digitizing special things. Thanks for commenting!

[Erin Kleider]

Have you read "Into the Forest" by Jean Hegland?

I think you'd enjoy it.

Erin :)

[TheSimplePoppy]

I just read a summary of it on Amazon. I think it might totally feed into my fear of the collapse of society. But it sounds too good to pass up - I'll check it out. Thanks for the tip!

[Victoria - Shift the Scene]

I felt similarly to you until the new Kindle commercials came out. I really like the look and price of it. It's starting to suck me in! Who knows, I just may break down and buy one.

My fears weren't so much about electricity since there's the trade off with books and clearcut which I've witnessed firsthand, but just making the change.

[TheSimplePoppy]

I think the new price on the Kindle makes it worth it. I'm seriously considering it since I think there are a great deal of books I wouldn't mind having on the Kindle at all. Plus, it is so sleek!

[Erin Kleider]

It totally made me want to become an herbalist and learn to put up preserves and such. It didn't feed any fears of mine, but I don't know if my fears really lie in that direction. It was a woman book. If you do end up reading it, you'll have to let me know. I know no one else who has read it since I picked it up from Friends of the Library at my local branch.

[TheSimplePoppy]

Man, I just went to the library and they don't have it! I'm going to have to keep my eyes peeled for a copy somewhere.

[Medical Advice]

digitizing some other is good but they have not good to oher..for me is yes i like digitizing.