Preachin' to the choir, sister, preachin' to the choir. So many cool things that weren't properly appreciated at the time until they're gone. Pave paradise, put up a parking lot. Here's another holy relic with direct ties to the business card. I speak, of course, of the Rolodex. For those that never had the pleasure of one, look it up. A really cool "analog" storage system for contact information. It didn't fit in one's cell phone. It sat on your desk next to your home phone and answering machine. It had heft and weight and volume and took up space. I know, I know...
I, Too, have a rolodex, AND a filofax, as well. They are relics, for sure, but I believe these were just the beginning to separating ourselves from one-another. Along with technology and 'in with the new, out with the old' are the blind spots we all start to feel as technology pulls us along. It seems to be a world we are simply meant to react (in everything) as "well, whadayagonna do?" the program that says we are powerless to reject such things without thought. For quite some many, many years now some - or probably many - years, many of us have watched the acceptance- without examination of what the effect could be- of adopting any and all technologies. I was not allowed to watch too much TV- being told to 'get outside and play'. I grew up a dinosaur. I turned out 'different'. I'm now watching the fruits of our (non)decisions come back to haunt us with what decisions we may have left. Long ago personal responsibility was de-programmed from us. The business card is an interesting look at a bunch of stuff- mainly marketing and we remember who started all THAT stuff, right? Hey- instead of examining all the drivel I just laid out here... maybe we should decide on how we want to BE in the world. Just my fifty cents (oh the times, they are a-changin') Thanks for the thought-provoking share, Sue... brilliant, as always. With all that there is.... Georgi
Very cool! When trying to get graphic design jobs, I made a business card that folded into a cube. Unfolded, it had different sections with info about me and my work!
“I’m from the 20th century” is how I occasionally introduce myself to younger people when needing help with techno geegaw that baffles me. Unfortunately, they don’t usually say, “How cool!” but it gets a giggle rather than a sneer and, more importantly, help.
As to business cards, I haven’t had one since my last move about six months ago. I’ve thought of making new ones, but it does seem a bit superfluous given current trends - and the rather cool iPhone transfer of contacts. That wavy thing the screens do is exciting! Plus I have boxes of old ones going back to the early 1980s. You got a time machine and want to reach me decades ago, I can give you a number. I also have near every business card I’ve been given over those years and there’s nothing like idly flipping through them to stimulate the memory banks.
This article tips me towards getting cards or making a zine. I’ve learnt that I have considerably more affinity for the physical world and the objects within. “Screen life is no life (even if it’s the only life on offer)” begins to capture my current feelings about the digital and virtual click field that has been hoisted upon us. I’ll add that I think the remoteness from real life so prevalent today is both making people arseholes and destroying their ability to understand anything beyond the edge of the screen. And those screens are mostly tiny!
Preachin' to the choir, sister, preachin' to the choir. So many cool things that weren't properly appreciated at the time until they're gone. Pave paradise, put up a parking lot. Here's another holy relic with direct ties to the business card. I speak, of course, of the Rolodex. For those that never had the pleasure of one, look it up. A really cool "analog" storage system for contact information. It didn't fit in one's cell phone. It sat on your desk next to your home phone and answering machine. It had heft and weight and volume and took up space. I know, I know...
I think I still have a Rolodex! Somewhere. In the attic maybe? Brilliant invention, to be sure.
I, Too, have a rolodex, AND a filofax, as well. They are relics, for sure, but I believe these were just the beginning to separating ourselves from one-another. Along with technology and 'in with the new, out with the old' are the blind spots we all start to feel as technology pulls us along. It seems to be a world we are simply meant to react (in everything) as "well, whadayagonna do?" the program that says we are powerless to reject such things without thought. For quite some many, many years now some - or probably many - years, many of us have watched the acceptance- without examination of what the effect could be- of adopting any and all technologies. I was not allowed to watch too much TV- being told to 'get outside and play'. I grew up a dinosaur. I turned out 'different'. I'm now watching the fruits of our (non)decisions come back to haunt us with what decisions we may have left. Long ago personal responsibility was de-programmed from us. The business card is an interesting look at a bunch of stuff- mainly marketing and we remember who started all THAT stuff, right? Hey- instead of examining all the drivel I just laid out here... maybe we should decide on how we want to BE in the world. Just my fifty cents (oh the times, they are a-changin') Thanks for the thought-provoking share, Sue... brilliant, as always. With all that there is.... Georgi
Sistah you are right over the target; that’s why we get so much flak.
Very cool! When trying to get graphic design jobs, I made a business card that folded into a cube. Unfolded, it had different sections with info about me and my work!
In a few years, the Temple of Artists zines will be collector's items on Ebay.
Right, and I won't get any of the dough.
The trick is to save a box of them and sell them yourself! Might as well start on Etsy right now.
“I’m from the 20th century” is how I occasionally introduce myself to younger people when needing help with techno geegaw that baffles me. Unfortunately, they don’t usually say, “How cool!” but it gets a giggle rather than a sneer and, more importantly, help.
As to business cards, I haven’t had one since my last move about six months ago. I’ve thought of making new ones, but it does seem a bit superfluous given current trends - and the rather cool iPhone transfer of contacts. That wavy thing the screens do is exciting! Plus I have boxes of old ones going back to the early 1980s. You got a time machine and want to reach me decades ago, I can give you a number. I also have near every business card I’ve been given over those years and there’s nothing like idly flipping through them to stimulate the memory banks.
This article tips me towards getting cards or making a zine. I’ve learnt that I have considerably more affinity for the physical world and the objects within. “Screen life is no life (even if it’s the only life on offer)” begins to capture my current feelings about the digital and virtual click field that has been hoisted upon us. I’ll add that I think the remoteness from real life so prevalent today is both making people arseholes and destroying their ability to understand anything beyond the edge of the screen. And those screens are mostly tiny!
Indeed--we are increasingly reduced, in every way, to the size of a screen...