Confessions of a hoarder

Or why I don’t want to stop buying CDs and Books.

As technologies such as iPod’s, iPad’s and Kindle’s become more and more ubiquitous, the future of the CD and the book as a physical, tangible product become more reverently discussed (most articles pointing to their slow and painful death).

In many cases, the CD’s went long ago as we sought to de-clutter our lives a little. Now, it’s the turn of the books. Both can now be bought, stored and accessed with a flourish of the fingers, so why leave them on the shelf to gather dust?

But what about our record or book collections innate ability to embody past experience and facilitate memory? Those shelves of CD’s and novels bear the weight of our story and progression, showing us how we’ve evolved and developed over the years. They essentially show a narrative identity – an archive of our various identity projects that, as a sum total, show us and the world who we are, or at least who we would like to be.

The idea of objects being an extension or embodiment of self is obviously not a new one, but it is often the physicality, or thingy-ness, of these articles that allow us to project our desired image (as well as maintain and continue to construct it). I realise that we do have digital alternatives – the likes of Facebook, last.fm, ShelfLuv and Shelfari allow us a forum to show the world (or at least our world) the artists we like and the books we read. iTunes also gives us a digital CD shelf to store our collection in.

But what happens when that artist, song or novel doesn’t reflect who we are anymore? Are we not more likely to just press the delete button? Personally, I find it more difficult to throw away something real as it’s a physical manifestation of my money. Conversely, it’s easier to delete something which has never actually existed, something with which – chances are – the greatest level of physical interaction I’ve had with it is taking down the number of my credit card. On this basis, our identity is still a continual project, but we now have the tools to cover our tracks. In some cases that’s a good thing – now you don’t have to explain that Smurf’s Go Pop album you bought when you were 7. But you also lose a sense of history. This post from BBH Labs’ Matthew Gladstone calls for ‘virtual packaging’ as a way of eliciting “a sense of ownership and property” with regard to digital material. Perhaps this would offer a means of alleviating the possibility of such deletion occurring.

Away from the somewhat narcissistic desire to archive yourself, other, possibly more important things are lost, especially when it comes to books. This Book of Revelations post describes the “improbable connection” and “solidarity” we feel towards someone on our bus or tube that is reading the same book that we are. How will we garner that link without craning our neck into the line of vision of eBook readers?

There’s also the possibility of losing interest. If we have only one book on us at any one time, we may persevere past that difficult first chapter and for this we are often rewarded.  If we have 10’s of books ready to go, why waste time struggling through the first chapter?

Finally, because everything needs an infographic, here’s one that pits the humble book against the eBook.