David Sax is a writer and reporter who specializes in business and culture. He is the author of Save the Deli and The Tastemakers. In The Revenge of Analog, Sax takes a look at the large and dominant place of digital technologies in our lives. Alongside that development are the alternative technologies and processes that do not depend on software or being accessed by a computer. That's the world of analog — which exists in the physical world rather than the virtual one.
Although the author and other capitalist authorities admit that digital technology is "the most efficient, widely used, cheapest, and obvious tool to get the job done," individuals still yearn for experiences that are more tactile and human-centric. In this fascinating book, Sax investigates the new markets for vinyl records, paper products, film photography, and board games.
What explains the comeback of vinyl records? The one–second pause before the needle hits the record's surface, the sound slowly emanating from the speakers, and the satisfactions that come from holding the album's jacket and reading the liner notes (is that what those are called?). Sax speaks for millions of youth when he observes, "The act of playing a record seemed more involved, and ultimately more rewarding than listening to the same music off a hard drive."
During the late 1970s the big buzz in the business world was "paperless office." But it never really took over. Sax notes: "While paper use may have shrunk in certain areas since the introduction of digital communications, in other uses and purposes, paper's emotional, functional, and economic value has increased. Paper may be used less, but where it is growing, paper is worth more." Case in point: the omnipresence of Molesekine notebooks.
After discussing the popularity of film cameras and board games, Sax concludes in the epilogue, that teenagers and twentysomethings are the ones who "revere" and "crave" analog.
