The Death of Physical Media. Rotary Club Speech 03/30/2022

            Good morning.  Physical Media.  Encyclopedias, DVDs, books, magazines, newspapers, vinyl records, CDs; they’ve all become more obsolete than we care to admit.  I can't remember the last time I saw someone under the age of 45 willingly buy a newspaper.  Most people would ask “what’s the use?”  Everything that people would ever need is right in their hands.  This tiny electronic box that can answer more questions than any one book ever could.  Today I will be using the Rotary 4-Way Test to speak on Physical Media and how to fix our technology craze.  Is it the truth?  Is it fair to all concerned?  Will it build goodwill and better friendships?  And will it be beneficial to all concerned?  First, is it the truth?  Well, about 7 percent of adults in the past decade have stopped reading books altogether.  It’s a strong hunch to say that the Baby Boomers and maybe the older Gen. X folks still crack open a hardback, or occasionally go buy a newspaper out of habit.  Kids nowadays—excluding myself—are some of the stubbornest people when it comes to them actually reading a book for their English class.  What’s different about reading a three page article about the Industrial Revolution, to someone reading the captions of a YouTube video?  Sure, when you say the two next to each other, they sound incredibly different, but theoretically it’s the same thing.  It’s shorter phrases of words at one time, but the same premise.  Reading.  A kid says they don’t like to read; that couldn’t be farther from the truth because you read everywhere.  Not just in books or magazines, but everywhere you can move your eyes, you’re reading something.  They might believe they like to read, but the only difference is what they read.  If people like music and they’re curious to know the lyrics; that’s reading.  People like movies, right?  Well what did a movie come from?  A screenplay; that’s reading.  Movies are literature, songs are literature.  However many people deny it, they like to read.  Maybe you just don’t know it yet.  Is it fair to all concerned?  I think everyone who has a basic smartphone has the ability to google whatever questions they need answered.  Imagine some thirty or forty years ago, you’re going to the local public library.  No phones yet, so you’re stuck using the encyclopedias to answer any questions.  You open an encyclopedia and drag your finger down, reading the tiny printed words as you go.  You have so much information at your fingertip.  (Hold up phone)  So much information at your fingertip.  Even though Physical Media is dying off fairly quickly, we still have a valid substitute to replace it.  Why ask a simple question when you can just look it up on the internet? A few months ago,   Four of my friends were sitting in a circle—all on their phones—and someone just asked a simple question that had an easily solvable solution.  They have a phone in their hand!  Use it!  Teens and even a good majority of adults don’t educate themselves fully.  If you want to become an expert in something, look up an article or two, watch a couple of videos and boom, you could teach a class on it.  It’s limitless what’s out there to learn.  Anything your heart desires.  It’s fair to say that anytime someone asks something and doesn’t want to attempt to look up the answer, that’s on them.  It’s not rocket science; it’s people being so stubborn that they’ll pay three quarters of a grand just to swipe on Instagram.  To watch repetitive, quick videos that shorten our attention spans and have some people get jittery if our phone isn’t in our face for at least two minutes.  It’s sad isn’t it?  I think it is.  I haven’t seen anyone below twenty-five sit comfortably in a quiet setting and not be on their phone.  They’ll put it down for a minute, look around and smell the air, and then they pick it up and begin to scroll again.  It’s sad to say how accurate that is from never meeting the majority of people that I’m talking about.  Will it build goodwill and better friendships?  Considering how far we’ve gotten from centuries of paper products, I think it’s safe to say that we have created a thriving country from paper.  Look at the Declaration of Independence, paper.  All of the great American novels that have been written and inspired countless wannabe writers, business owners, or just basic citizens to actually try and do something in their life.  Be involved more.  People need to educate themselves in something new.  Experts every day are creating new ways to communicate through technology, and ways to figure out what’s going on in the world.  After changing from paper to digital, it’s as if the whole world changed in a bad way.  I was only two when the first iPhone came out so I don’t remember it very well, but I do know from my parents that the world stopped and began a new era of hypnosis that has clouded our judgment for the past 15 years give or take.  Obtaining information wasn’t anymore important than going to the grocery store once a week.  It’s definitely made communication easier, yet it’s not always used correctly.  It’s as if we don’t think the same because we have our own little information calculators that will tell us the answer anytime of the day.  Will it be beneficial to all concerned? Granted that life is easier, it has hurt society more than helped it.  It provides security and safety through quick interactions, but is a void of addictive technology.  But no, I don’t think phones will or are beneficial to the idea of evolution.  It’s making the world too excessively easy to control.  Most younger kids today don’t understand the concept of hard work.  Anything they need to have to survive is on a tiny screen in front of them.  It’s an idea so brilliant, it’s bad.  An idea so lucrative, that it causes bankruptcy.  An idea so painfully easy to use, it’s the most complex thing ever made.  Physical media is the single most convenient and likable form of communication, research and value.  It’s something that is dying quickly, yet all of us still try and hold onto it with every living cell in our bodies.  It’s safe to say that it’s more intuitive, and requires just enough effort to matter in the real world.  If it dies, then we’ve got to educate ourselves another way.  There are numerous alternatives, and I’m confident that under the correct circumstances, we can coherently fix this technology craze and utilize our resources in the best way possible.  Thank you.