material world vs. digital world

I reckon being born in the 80's/90's means being torn between generations of tradition and rapid development of new adopted ways of life. We're the generation that has grown up alongside the growth of technology yet our childhood years still had that taste of old-fashioned lifestyle. We're like a blend between the two. For example, take the old school cassette player. I've owned one of those. Then along came the CD player, the MD player, the MP3 player and now the itouch. Things move along at such a pace without us even realizing, yet we grow along with it, and it has become part of our lifestyle to constantly adapt to new technology.

I would still talk with friends about the childhood days.. coming home from school and watching tv, reading a book or meeting at the playground with other kids in the neighbourhood. a pretty normal childhood. but kids nowadays... it's all that tech-savvy stuff on the computer and psp's and wii's and x-box and.. to be honest, no kid really plays on the playgrounds anymore. they all stay in and get sucked into this digitalized world... which is such a pity because there's just so much more out there to explore than the latest computer game.

One thing I really can't get over is the introduction of reading tablets like these:


what's wrong with these:

?

sure, youre saving a whole lot of paper and space. but the whole physicality.. the smell of old books, the ability to hold a book in your hands, flick a page, pencil in notes and fold corners- that's all gone. personally, I'm someone who likes to connect with the physical world. I like the feeling of being able to use all my senses to see, touch, smell, hear, taste the world. but with the uncontrollable development of technology, I feel that humans are slowly starting to lose this sense of physicality and mentality of cherishing things. can humans really have a connection with a book thats on a screen? actually, can that even be considered as a "book"? or perhaps just a screen with words that came from a book?



this is why I invest in things like analogue cameras and polaroids. I always feel that with digital cameras, one can take hundreds of photos of the same thing, yet it won't truly capture the mood, the atmosphere, the feeling of what's in the photo at that time. However with just one photograph taken on film, it becomes a whole different story. Perhaps it's because you know there could only ever be one. So would this mean the whole idea of only being "one" is why the material world is losing against the digital world? That people are becoming more and more insatiable, wanting more of everything and anything?