As I watched one of the countless re-runs of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, I saw a commercial that stuck out to me. "Now, Walmart will transfer your DVD collect to digital for not $10 but only $2, it's fast and easy!" After a bit of research of a rather vaguely described commercial I came across an article that does confirm Walmart's new service transferring DVD movies into digital movies. This to me was actually really interested, especially for the fact that you're allowed to keep the discs after you transfer them to the UltraViolet DRM system. This made me realize, we're becoming a cloud-based entertainment society. As people are making the switch to Spotify, Netflix, and Steam for their entertainment, it saddens me. I've always loved technology but I'm not ready to live on a cloud.
Now for those who don't know what the cloud is, the cloud is pretty much online storage space that can be anywhere from several megabytes to hundreds of gigabytes, that can store anything from photos, music, documents, videos, and any other computer file you'd hope to store. That cloud is becoming increasingly popular. Amazon has recently given 5GB free to people who used their "locker" which is music, videos, and media files purchased through Amazon. Google Documents recently uploaded their site to Google Drive, which still does all the capabilities of Google Documents but with 5GB of storage, to store any files (previously 1gb of storage for documents). We're seeing a big shift to cloud storage. Which cloud storage is a great thing, we're getting a lot of online space for free, and if you'd like to upload to more storage (such as Apple's iCloud) for a fee of about $29.99 a year, you'll get 30GB of space on the iCloud. We're seeing this theme a lot, and it is truly helpful. We're in a world where documents are needed at all times, and cloud services such as Dropbox are convientely allowing us to transfer files from computer to computer without a problem. It's great. It almost sounds like something we would've seen on the sci-fi channel years ago. But I'm not ready to live on a cloud.
One of the biggest new innovations of the cloud, is Google's Chromebook. What Google Chromebook is, is a book focused around Google Chrome (the internet browser) what Chrome does, is allows you to compute normally but with limited storage on the actual model. You're also run on the Chrome browser constantly, without internet it's pointless. Most storage of everything is focused and centered on the cloud. Now, to me that isn't a problem, it sounds like a stress free concept with a clutter free computer lifestyle, but when does it become a problem?
The reason I'd never want to live on a cloud, without having my 500gb of storage on my computer, and completely transferring to digital would be for one main reason, what happens if cloud services are hacked, internet service goes bad (who knows, maybe there is some bandwidth that we can reach before each of our modems just blow up), or plain and simple you lose internet (or don't have the capability) at home or elsewhere. Not only does having a limited service not help, but for some reason the collection of DVDs, CDs, and books look far more awesome on a shelf than on a cloud service. There is a certain feel that comes with a new purchase at the store of a DVD or book, that is not like any other. The world has an attachment to stuff, anything that is a material object, but when you take that material object and make it digital, it's less appealing. People are also far too social for the cloud. Of course services that are completely cloud-based shouldn't change, but people want to borrow movies, books, music,and games. It's how we are.
In a recent TED Talk, Graham Hill says that with less stuff, we are happier. But I truly don't believe this. We live in a material world, yes it does get cluttered, and unorganized, but the feeling of having all these material things, especially countless movies and music is just far better than having a cloud of all your things. Hill also argues that, we should be transferring our music, movies, games, books, etc to digital, but I believe there is no rush as material objects have far more prominence in a persons home than a cloud. Hill is right when he says there is less clutter, and ultimately an easier lifestyle if everything is digital, but I believe that is only half the fight.
Overall, I do believe the cloud is a great thing. It's convince truly at the touch of a button. But we shouldn't completely shift our society to a digital-based cloud quite yet. Some true classic possessions of mine in the media world such as my turntable with my several records whether it'd be my Jimi Hendrix or my Black Keys which can both be found online, doesn't mean I'm quite ready to part with them. Integration between the two will be the only way in my opinion that should be used, people have built collections that are beyond imaginable, and transferring that to the cloud, just seems pointless to a lot of people. When it does come to documents, music I can't exactly buy, movie streaming, and any type of streaming, the cloud is a blessing in disguise, but transferring our lives to a cloud, isn't the right step just yet. I truly don't want to live on a cloud.
No comments:
Post a Comment