“Obsolete” is in the eye of the beholder

In Slow Media communities, people don’t necessarily equate newer with better. Like cultural creatives and alternative media users, people who enjoy Slow Media are conscious of the environmental and cultural dilemmas posed by corporate and commercial practices. I consider the persistence of print and analog media as a form of cultural resistance.

The Slow perspective brings to light how companies are motivated by profit—more so than social needs or consumer preferences—to develop ever-newer products. Although analog media are often deemed “obsolete” in the technological sense of being incompatible with digital forms, the people who buy zines, records, audiocassettes and other physical media find them satisfying, effective, and complementary.

Slow Medians are not opposed to speed; rather, they wish to preserve a place for slower media alongside faster ones.

 

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