This Makes Me So Sad

Time Magazine printed an online article about what this upcoming generation will never know. Among this list were Film and Books. It almost made me want to cry! Okay well not really but it was horribly devastating. I was talking to someone of the younger generation a few years back and mentioned Nirvana...you know the band?...who? Yeah. That made me feel old, and I'm not even that old! So what made me decide this needed to turn into a post was more the two things I listed above...Film and Hard Copy Books.

Film. I got a cute little automatic film camera when I was 12. I was so excited! The rush of having my own camera was too much for my little 12 year old self and I immediately ran outside and began taking pictures of EVERYTHING. At the time it wasn't a big deal because I didn't have to pay for the developing. As I got older I learned to be more liberal with the pictures I took because I had to pay to have them developed. I also learned that you have to be super careful and more creative unless you want to spend a small fortune on film and developing. A lesson the upcoming generation will never have to learn.

As a Junior in high school I took a summer class at BYU on photography. My mother loaned me her old manual Nikon (I have no idea what type it is...but she still has it) and I went crazy taking pictures with it. I had a blast learning how to develop black and white film (their color developing machine was broken) and learning the in's and out's of great picture taking.
                                         

Digital cameras are rampant these days, and while I love them, I still would prefer film. I want to have my own dark room in whatever house I buy some day. Back in June I was reminded of how much I loved using an old school film camera. I borrowed my friends Nikon FA with 50mm lens and got two rolls of black and white film to take photos with. I loved it! I hated how few pictures I could take (a mere 24!) before having to insert the new roll but I was reminded of why I love film so much more. Using a film camera truly makes you think about your shot before you take it...you have to really want it and line everything up to achieve the perfect picture. I've been checking ebay for a camera like that ever since. They've had a few but they keep getting sniped right out from under me at the last second. I hate ebay.

Books. As a child my family read our scriptures together every Sunday night...well almost every. As I grew up it really helped me to develop my reading skills. My family also started a tradition, every year for Family Home Evening the Monday before Christmas we would have a hide-and-seek type book search. Mom and dad would hide our books either wrapped in different paper or tied with a different colored ribbon and then we were called back into the room and given our ribbon or paper scrap and instructed to look around the room until we found our book. If we found someone elses we were to leave it there and not say anything and keep moving till we found our own book. After we found our book we had a year to read it and then the next Christmas Family Home Evening we would each give a quick book report on our book.

I feel like THIS is where I gained my true love of books. My mother loved reading and she passed it down to her children. I love reading and should I ever have children I will pass it down to them. The thing I don't love is how technological everything in our society has become. First we got audio books, which I love by the way! I can listen to them on road trips and enjoy a good story while I'm at work. Then came digital e-books. I can't deal with that. I would so much rather have a hard copy book in my hands and be reading the words on a page that I can turn and then when I'm done I can put my book back in its place on my bookshelf where I can see all my beautiful books lined up. One day in that house that I buy where I will be making a dark room...I want a room that is lined with bookshelves from floor to ceiling and a big bay window where I can put a nice comfy couch or overstuffed chair and sit and read.

I personally have a problem with these e-books and with reading things on the Internet. Mentally I can't handle it. There's something about staring at the bright light of a computer screen that turns my brain off when I'm trying to read. Emails and texts and chatting are one thing but when it comes to a long story I would much prefer a printed version. I can write in the margins, and run my finger along the sentence as I read it. The up and coming generations will probably not experience too much of that. They wont get to feel a hard cover book in their hands as they hide under their covers with a flash light, staying up past their bed time to finish reading a story that they just can't put down. They will sit there with their Kindle or Nook or whatever other electronic reading device they decide to come up with in the coming years and ruin their eyes. I kind of have the same problem with audio books, listening to the story I don't get as much out of it as I would if I were to actually have a hard copy and be reading it...so that's why when I get an audio book it's usually of something I've already read.

Anyway, I guess to the best of my ability I will try to instill a love of these things in any children I may have one day so that they'll understand their value and appreciate them even though they may still use the newer and updated versions.