So Many Dishes

One way to describe life before the internet was that it was more physical, more tactile. You needed to use things, like books and newspapers and periodicals (when was the last time I thought of that term?) to access the information we now can get from Google. We had to go places, like a library, to research a topic. Cameras used film, and developed pictures were either printed and stored in albums, of which we still have many, or made into slides. Nobody asks guests, “do you want to see slides from our vacation” any more. There’s no need; we’ve posted them on Facebook!

The internet has certainly changed how I find new recipes. I still love to browse through my cookbooks, and I will never turn down the opportunity to get a new one. But these days, so many of my new recipes come from bloggers and websites. Cutting recipes out of the newspaper has been replaced by downloading and printing from the online edition.

I love the saying that books are the original handheld device. I have a Kindle, so I do read books that I’ve accessed through the internet, but I still love reading physical books. I still love going to the library and browsing the shelves. And there’s nothing like the smell of old books.

Finally, the internet has affected how I consume music, both as a listener and as a musician. We have stacks of CDs that haven’t been played in ages. Instead, I’m listening via Sirius or Pandora, or pulling up music on YouTube. And while I have lots of printed music, almost all my sheet music these days comes from the internet via PDF format. It’s a lot easier carrying an iPad than the heavy binders where I kept all of my church music.

So yes, I remember life before the internet. And there are definitely things I miss.